build your personal network for more than you

When I first really started pursuing the idea of the authentic life and finding myself where I am today, I launched PRST (pronounced pursuit); the brand was going to be where I housed all of my content about pursuing the authentic life. I initially chose the name because I loved (and still do) how strong the word “pursuit” feels to me, and for some reason, I like stripping vowels out of words, which left me with “PRST”.

Having a four-letter word for my new brand wasn’t enough, I wanted it also to be an acronym for the things that were most important in pursuing your authentic life: Passions, Relationships, Self, and Time.

This weekend, I flew down to Atlanta to support one of my closest friends and his wife as they prepare to launch their Pilates studio in a couple of weeks, which just happens to be the only black-owned Balanced Body certified studio in Atlanta. I’m also making my debut as a model in their marketing photos, which is pretty cool. Since I have a companion pass with Southwest, I brought Roman down with me for some father-son time and to experience a new city. I also wanted him to spend time with my friend and another who flew in for the weekend so our trio could be together–we’ve become a packaged deal.

After dinner last night, I brought to Roman’s attention how he had just spent the day with a few amazing people–people he should look up to first because of the people they are and secondly, because of the success they have already had and will continue to have–I’m the old man in the group as I’m ten years older than one of my friends and fourteen years older than the other. Funny side note: Roman told me he didn’t realize how much older I was than them and that I was an “old head”--my response was that must mean I’m a pretty cool old head if they like hanging with me ??.

I explained to Roman that he got to sit at a dinner table with three entrepreneurs who are family-first men, each building multiple businesses serving other people, leaders in their profession and communities, and building their lives to allow them to do what they love the most.

The amount of wisdom, innovation, ambition, and brotherhood he experienced over a nice steak was something I know he cannot understand at thirteen years old, but I hope it will leave a lasting memory he can recall when he’s older. I also hope he picked up on the fact that we didn’t talk business the entire time–in fact, there was little business discussed and more life goals, relationships, health, and non-business discussed.

I’ve learned in thirteen years of parenting that children do observe their parents and learn, but they also tend to listen and learn important lessons from other people–if you have kids, I’m sure you’ve experienced your children’s excitement learning a lesson from someone else that you’ve told them countless times.

I’m hopeful that Roman will look up to my friends and want to emulate what he sees through them because if he can follow in their footsteps, in his own authentic way, I will feel really good that his mom and I (and our networks) have set him up to live his authentic life–and I hope this is the case for Leo and Silas as well; I already know people in my network that I want them to be around when the time is right.

I’ve always understood how important relationships are in life and that having a network based on genuine relationships was extremely valuable for my goals. Recently, I’ve discovered that not only is my network valuable to me, but it’s valuable for my children as well—not because it will help them cut corners, but because they can be introduced to role models and examples of what is possible in life.

There’s the old saying that it takes a village to raise kids–what does your village look like?

See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,

JC