Giving Confidence Creates a Happy Family at Home and a Successful Team at Work No matter what stage of development you're in domestically or professionally, making those around you feel confident is key.
By Jim Joseph
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
So many of my colleagues at work are having babies, starting their families and raising young kids. It reminds me of when my now adult kids were that age. It is so much work!
Sleepless nights, homework, soccer games, school lunches... the workload is endless. It feels like you are just running from one thing to another, just trying to keep them healthy and safe.
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The same is true when your business is young, or you are just starting out. It is so much work! Sleepless nights, constant deadlines, slim resources... the workload is endless. It feels like you are just running from one thing to another, just trying to keep your business afloat.
Well I am here to tell you that it does indeed get better.
The children grow up, take on responsibility themselves, and you can start to think about the future beyond the school drop-offs. The business also starts to take shape, the staff takes on more work, and you can finally start to plan for the future beyond the day-to-day fire drills.
As our lives evolve at home and at work, we too have to evolve. Taking care of a newborn or young kids is very different than helping and coaching your college kids. Managing a business for growth is very different than dealing with startup issues.
So, you have to personally change along with your family and your business. How you contribute and lead those around you has to change as they change.
While writing my personal memoir about my journey as a father, Out and About Dad, I had a bit of a revelation mid-sentence as I was writing one of the later chapters.
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I was reflecting back on how my children had grown and how I had managed my career through all the ages and stages of their development, and I realized that I wasn't really responsible any longer for their physical wellbeing. They have apartments and lives and friends and dates, and they don't really need me to help them manage all of that and help them to stay safe.
That's not my job anymore.
But there is something very important that I am still responsible for and that I can contribute to their lives -- and always will.
I can help give them confidence.
I can support their thinking, I can provide counsel, and I can give them perspective that perhaps they don't have. I can give them support so that they can make their own decisions, not me. I can remind them that they have what it takes to succeed, that they know who they are as human beings, and that they have a life of happiness ahead of them.
I can help give them confidence. And the same is true at work.
I don't necessarily do a lot of the actual work anymore, because I have a different role now. But I can support their thinking, I can provide counsel, and I can give them perspective that perhaps they don't have. I can support them so that they can make their own decisions, not me. I can remind them that they have what it takes to succeed, that they know who they are as professionals, and that they have a very successful career ahead of them.
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I can help give them confidence. Like so many did for me when I needed it too.
