Grow or die

I’ve been debating this post for a couple of days (weeks if I’m being honest). I’ve resisted crossing any lines between professional and personal identifies on social media, but it sometimes seems like a waste not too.

My son has always loved drawing and it’s fun to watch. He’s also the product of two strong-willed, perfectionist parents and has inherited some of our best and worst qualities.

Recently, his uncle exposed him to YouTube’s How to Draw Pokémon Channels. He started out excited, but he struggled with errors and figuring out how to listen and draw at the same time. We dealt with tears and multiple times of taking the iPad away while we cool down.

He’s struggled when things are hard and he’s not immediately great at something. We’ve had discussions about how the most important things in life will be difficult, but that it’s the struggle that makes you better.

Most of us live this everyday with business and personal efforts. The more challeging the situation, typically the bigger the payoff or impact. At GadellNet, we call it “Grow or Die” and it means we need to constantly grow and improve our thinking, our skills, our results.

Through lots of tears, eraser marks, and frustrations, he’s made 26 perfectly imperfect drawings and I’m proud of every single one. 

Just this morning when he saw me looking at this image on my phone, he leaned over and said with no regrets or sadness “I think I can make his tail better”.

He reminded me to today-

• Do what makes me happy
• The hard stuff is worth fighting for
• Be happy with your best
• Keep looking for ways to make your best better

He’s seven years old and I hope he keeps reminding me of these things.