Business Lessons From A Toddler

“There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.” - Jiddu Krishnamurti

People always say you should try to learn something new every day, I always thought I was learning something new until I had my son. Not only does he teach me how to be a better father every day, he’s also taught me a lot that I’ve been able to take into my professional career. Below are 5 things I’ve learned from him in the past three years.

1.     Communication - Cole just turned three so communication has been the one thing that has continually improved over the past few months to a year. Prior to that it was a huge challenge. How many times have you tried to have a conversation with someone, but you were on different pages? Maybe they didn’t want to be there or didn’t want to hear what you had to say. Well you have two options, either get frustrated and lose your cool or call out the obvious (in a professional way) and decide together what the next step should be.

2.     Don’t Be Afraid To Ask Questions – It doesn’t matter what we are doing, my son usually has about 1,000 questions as to WHY. It’s not his way of being annoying, but to try and understand his surroundings, what we are doing, and the intent behind doing it. In other words he’s genuinely curious and just wants to learn. As weird at it may sound, I’ve found myself asking why more often, or digging deeper into what is expected to make sure I fully understand what’s going on. I’m not trying to be an annoyance to those I connect with, I truly do want to understand their world and what they have going on.

3.     Setting Expectations (Negotiating) – To all my parents out there, you know what I mean! I think my wife and I will be really happy once the negotiating starts to slow down with Cole, who oddly seems to win more often than not. Although he’s only 3, you can almost see him trying to think one step ahead of us when we want him to get in the bath, lay down, or just take a break from running like crazy around the house. As soon as we start the conversation, he already has his end goal in mind. That may be some extra time watching Mickey, maybe it’s a few extra M&M’s or some extra milk. Whatever it is he sets his expectations for the deal and we set ours, and somehow manage to come to a mutual agreement (most of the time) that we are all happy with. I may not be asking for extra milk when I talk to potential clients (that would be weird), but I do try to make it clear on what the expectations are for the meeting and what will happen if we decide together to move to the next step. One thing I learned through the tough negotiations with my son is that as long as he understands what is going to happen and agrees to it, he is OK doing it…crazy isn’t it!

4.     Face Your Fears – When we go to someone’s house with young kids, or we head out to a place that has a lot of people my son’s first reaction is to hide behind my wife and me. After a few minutes you can start to see him change, he faces his fear and either starts interacting with the other kids, or if there aren’t any other kids, he starts to ham it up for the adults. You can almost see the switch happen and it’s amazing. He’s shown me that it’s OK to step out of your comfort zone and to try something new because you never know what joy could come from it.

5.     Relax – Time goes by fast so to always be on edge just isn’t worth it. Things are going to happen, you may fall down, but it won’t be the end of the world. My son may have a meltdown, but five minutes later he’s laughing and playing again. Life is full of obstacles and how you react to those obstacles goes a long way in how you will live your life. 

So I’ll leave you with this, life is challenging but if you pay attention you can learn to deal with the obstacles and continue moving forward. As the years continue to fly by, I look forward to what I’ll learn next from my son. 

Do you have children, what’s one thing you’ve learned from them that you've been able to apply to your professional life? Comment below or shoot me a message, like I said I’m always trying to learn!