Greg :
Well, it's because of the summer and the sacrifice that was made during that time that they're able to reap the benefits of being part of the fall and harvest season. This is Secrets for Success. Welcome to the Secrets For Success Podcast. I'm your host, Greg Todd. Thank you, as always, for joining me today's episode want to discuss being a parent, being an entrepreneur? Can you do both and do both? Well, that's what we're going to discuss today. And I believe that I am qualified to be able to do this because I've been a parent for 20 years and I have been an entrepreneur for 18. And for many of those years I've actually battled with this, thinking that I was screwing up my kids, thinking I wasn't spending enough time with my kids and this and that and blah, blah, blah. Anyways, I've learned a lot, and I want to be able to share that with you.
Greg :
So if you are struggling with how do you do both and how do you do both, well, then I think the things that I'm going to talk about today will be extremely valuable to you. So kind of let's hit the first thing that I think is important. I think it's important for us to understand that there is no such thing as work life balance. It doesn't exist. There is no balance. Like it's not going to happen. But what there is is there are seasons. And I like to break up the seasons like the four seasons of the year.
Greg :
There is a springtime, there is summer, there is a fall harvest, and there is winter. And when I go back and I look at my time as an entrepreneur, I started my whole journey to entrepreneurship in 2005. At that time, I had a two year old daughter, and that was my spring season. That was where I came up with this idea that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. And I had all these ideas running in my head and this and that. And then finally I decided, okay, I'm going to be an entrepreneur. And then I went through summer, and that was where I was putting in a lot of work for very little reward, and that lasted for a couple of years. Now, during that time, I had a two and a half year old daughter when I started.
Greg :
And the next year, 2006, we had our son. Right. The reality is that I was in a summer season in my life where I was grinding and I was working 50, 60, 70 hours a week. Especially back then, there was no online business this, that, DA DA DA DA DA. And so I thought I was screwing up my kids by doing that. Now, those two kids today are 20 and 18. And what I can tell you is that what they have both told me is that during those years where you weren't home every single night having dinner with us. You came home late, you left early.
Greg :
They said they still felt like daddy spent a lot of time with them. But looking back, they realized that you spent a lot more time today, you have a lot more flexibility today that you had back then. But they understand that that was just a season of our life. So I think it's important for us to know that you have a spring season where you're coming up with ideas and you're excited and you're about to get into entrepreneurship. You're in a summer season, and that summer season can last many years, where you are putting in a lot of work and it's hot and it's grueling and it's sweaty and you're not spending as much time at your kids and you're getting very little reward. But then you are going to go into the fall, you're going to go into the harvest, where today, you know something, we get to do a lot of amazing things. My kids get to take lots of vacations. My daughter's in school.
Greg :
She's not having to worry about who's going to pay for her apartment or this or that or whatever, right? If my kids need something, they can get it. What's? Because of the summer and the sacrifice that was made during that time, that they're able to reap the benefits of being part of the fall and harvest season. And then there is a wintertime as well. And a wintertime is kind of a time for us to reflect and rest. And I know that I took my winter in 2020, and my kids got to see a lot of me. It's just seasons, you guys, and you got to honor the season that you're in with regards to your life and just explain that to your children so that when it's their time, when they are adults, they understand when they're going through rough times, you say, baby, you're just in a summer season. When they're killing it, you're like, hey, you're in a fall season, but remember, winter is coming too, right? And so if you can teach them that, that there is no balance, there's going to be times where you're going to make a lot of money and you're going to do very little, but there's going to be some times where you're doing a lot and you're making very little. Just understand the seasons and acknowledge it.
Greg :
So I think that is number one. I think number two is understanding that you are a parent. You're not supposed to be a friend. That's not your main priority. You might be a friend. I might be a friend to my kids at times, but that's not what my role is. My role is to be a parent. And what my job is is my job is to have my kids model behavior that will allow them to be very functioning citizens of the world.
Greg :
That's my job. My job is to be a parent. My job is not for my kids to think I'm the coolest dude ever. My job is not to do this. My job is to model behavior so that they are prepared to be adults. That is our job as a parent. And so do you want your kids this is the question you should be asking yourself. Do you want your kids to have a better life than you? Well, then that's going to mean that they're going to have to do things that are uncomfortable.
Greg :
They're going to have to do more and produce more than you. So your job is to basically try to reach as high as you possibly can so that your kids can use that as what their bar is, what their standard is. That is modeling behavior. If you are just like, okay, I want to be around my kids all day and do nothing, then you can't get upset with your kids when they do nothing. Your job is not to be negligent. Your job is not to tell your kids to go after their dreams when you every single day, don't go after yours. That's not fair to your kids to tell them to do things that you don't model the behavior of. I've never told my kids to go after their dreams.
Greg :
All they got to do is watch their father. They watch their dad go after his dreams every single day. I don't ever have to talk to my kids about, you guys need to bring value to the world. You guys need to bring value to the world. All they have to do is just watch what I do, and that's it. I tell my kids, like, look, I have events. If you guys want to come to the events, no problem. You come to events.
Greg :
If you don't want to come to the event, you want to stay in a hotel room, that's fine too. My kids usually will come to the event, and they'll learn from the event, and they see what it looks like to go after your passions, your goals, and dreams. But equally as important is what my kids saw when I was doing work that I didn't necessarily like to do, but I did it because I had to provide, and I had the privilege of providing for them. You guys, our job is to model. Our job is to model, and our kids job is to mimic us. So are you doing behavior every single day that you can say that, hey, I'm proud if my kid mimics what it is that I do? Are you a model for them? That's what we should be doing as parents and as entrepreneurs to our kids, number three is communication. I think this is an extremely important piece. We must communicate to our kids what's going on and what's happening.
Greg :
And I think one of the things that I have really tried to do over the last seven to eight years is make sure that I communicate to my kids, hey, this is what Daddy is doing, and this is how the dreams and the visions that Daddy is going after is going to directly benefit them. But they just want to be communicated with. I let my kids know that on Mondays, mondays are long days. If Daddy doesn't answer right away, it's just because Daddy's going from meeting to meeting, from coaching call to coaching call, because that's just how Mondays are. Tuesdays is a different type of day. Tuesdays, Daddy's working a lot with his team, but I have a lot more flexibility. Okay, Wednesdays wednesdays, if you guys need me, I'll take you where, like, last week, my son, I took him to go get his driver's license. Wednesdays, I have flex in my schedule.
Greg :
Thursdays is all for Mommy. It's all for Mommy. All right. And then Fridays is all for them. Right? Might do half a day in the morning. Well, whatever you guys want to do, we'll do it on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, family as well. I just communicate with the kids. And before, in the early days, I was almost embarrassed of how hard I was working, and I didn't communicate.
Greg :
That's one of the regrets that I have. Communicate with your children. I don't care how young they are. Train them, indoctrinate them, make them understand this is what we're doing so that you guys can have a better future. Let your kids understand that. Communicate that with them. They're smarter than you think. So I think that's extremely important.
Greg :
Okay, number four. Number four is to teach your kids how to create value. And that's why I love entrepreneurship, because I truly believe entrepreneurship allows you to be a much more effective parent. Teach your kids how to create value. In the entrepreneurship world, if I don't create value, I don't make money. The way it works is that I have to create enough value so that people know me, they love me, they trust me, and if they know me, love me and trust me. And I have an amazing offer that could make their life better and can take them from a point A to a point B that they desire, they will pay me money. That's the only way you get paid in the world.
Greg :
Whether you are a doctor, whether you are a psychologist, whether you work for Dunkin'Donuts, whether you work for Starbucks, you work for Wendy's, you work for whataburger? It doesn't matter. The only way you're getting paid is if you can bring value. As an entrepreneur, if I don't bring value, I don't get paid. So use your entrepreneurship skills to teach your kids how to actually survive in the world, how to create value. So I want to give you some examples. My youngest son is actually building out a YouTube channel right now, and he's doing videos where he's doing, like, verses. So Messi versus Mbappe, right? Ronaldo versus Becca. Like, whatever you know what I mean, right? He's doing these verses, videos, and that's how he's growing his YouTube channel.
Greg :
He says, I love to do videos, and I just want to bring value to people. And he's growing his YouTube channel that way. My youngest daughter, she's 14, she is creating crochet, and she's creating these crochet snails and narwhals and ghosts and this and that or whatever. And she's building an Instagram and a TikTok channel based on how to build and how to create crochet. So she's selling them. She's selling them to people, and she's making money, but then she's also showing people how to actually do it, and she's showing the journey of how she's doing it. She's bringing value. My 18 year old, he's bringing value.
Greg :
The way that he brings value is he does thumbnails and images for YouTube creators, for NBA Two K, and so he does that for NBA Two K. He does that for Madden, he does that for different games, and that's how he's creating value. And then my daughter, my oldest daughter, she works some of the time for me, but even if she's not working for me, she's doing other things, building her community, and she's doing leadership roles in college so that she's learning how to create value as well. So teach your kids. You got to create value. And I think as an entrepreneur, if you don't create value, you don't say an entrepreneur. So I think you can use this entrepreneurship and parenting, and you could use it to be a better parent. So anyways, I hope that helps.
Greg :
And then number five is this. Number five is understand that not all time is created equal. There is quality time, and there is quantity of time. So the thing I want you to understand is it's always quality over quantity. There are times that I used to work a ten to seven shift, and I would come home from work, and I was not only exhausted, I was uninspired. I didn't like my work. I didn't like that I didn't have creativity with how I was able to deal with patients. I didn't like the insurance bureaucracy.
Greg :
By the way, I was a physical therapist. I didn't like that. So when I came home, my kids saw an uninspired man. They saw an uninspired father. So, yeah, I was getting home at 07:00, but honestly, I was just like, just want to eat my dinner and just veg out and try to escape. Trying to escape. I was watching, like, Fresh Pits of Bel Air or I was watching some football game or whatever. I was trying to escape because I didn't enjoy what it is I was doing.
Greg :
Conversely, when I do a hard day's of work, but I feel like it was valuable, I come home and I've got energy. So I might only have an hour with the kids, but they get an hour of me being present. To me, it's about quality. Time. It's not about quantity of time. Mean, a lot of times you all on your phones and you just there and you vegging out and you looking on your phone and you scroll and you scroll and you scroll. Your kids are right there in front of you. You can't even pay attention to them.
Greg :
Focus on the time that you have and just be intentional with it. You need time for yourself. You might need time with your spouse, but give your kids some of that time. It could be 20 minutes. 20 minutes of asking your kids the right questions and giving them 20 minutes of your devoted time is a heck of a lot better than giving them 2 hours of you scrolling and you zoning off and you trying to escape reality. Okay? So understand it's quality over quantity all day. And I tell you guys, I think those are the key things that you must understand and how you can use entrepreneurship to actually become a better parent. The cool thing about entrepreneurship is that if you do it well, you could bring a lot of value to people in a minimum amount of time.
Greg :
But that does take work. But throughout that journey of it taking work, your kids could see that you're developing into someone that's totally different than the person that they're seeing right now. So I would highly advise you to not look at it as entrepreneurship or parenting. Great entrepreneurship, terrible parent. I think that's what the world wants you to think. I want you to think of if you get better at entrepreneurship, you're going to have to become a better version of yourself. If you get better at entrepreneurship, you're going to have to become a better steward. That means you're a better steward of your time and of your resources.
Greg :
Your children are a resource. They are probably one of the most valuable resources you have. You're going to get better at the time that you're spending with them. You're going to get better at how you are communicating with them and I really believe it can make you a better parent. So if that brought you value, then I want you to share this out with other people and if you haven't subscribed to the channel already, go ahead and subscribe to the channel. Thanks, guys.
