Business, It's a Family Affair

As many of you already know my wife and I had our second child, a son a few months ago. His name is Ahmed Dawud Miracle. He’s now four months old and doing great adjusting to life, as my daughter says, “outside the womb.”

The birth of my son has led to great adjustments for me, my wife and daughter, and my business.

Both my kids have taught me so much about living. And they’ve also taught me about business.

Yeah, I know, sounds odd. How can a 2 1/2 year-old and a infant who freshly planted here have anything to teach me about my business?

Well, just the other day, I was working on a design. It was all but complete, except for a bug in Internet Explorer (no surprise) that was causing some of the text to disappear. It worked fine in all the other web browsers, just not in IE.

After three hours of trying to fix the bug, I had made little progress. My normally patient, calm self was disintegrating fast. And just at the point when I let out a loud UUUGGGHH!, my little girl knocked on my office door.

She was bringing me lunch – which she often does. Of course, she’s two, so she asked me what UUUGGGHH! was. I gave her some answer she could understand. Then she reminded me that I was using my outside voice inside. Which was true.

She then asked the question that can haunt adults to no end…”why?”

A’esha, my amazing little two year-old, wanted to know why I was using my outside voice inside. Now I usually do my best to answer every question she ever asks in a way that she can understand. And, I’m human and do get frustrated from time to time with the constant curiosity of the two year-old mind. Rarely, however, do I display my frustration with her on this.

This was one of those time I had to make a choice: either let her see my further frustration. Or take a brief moment, let the frustration go a bit, and give her a loving answer she could understand.

Luckily, I find her curiosity to be delightful, refreshing and often joyous.

In a single moment, I connected with those feels and started to laugh. I was laughing, of course, not at my little girl’s questions, but at myself. I knew I had been taking what I was working on too seriously and it was creating unnecessary stress.

So, I picked up my little girl, who was still holding the lunch my wife so lovingly made for me, and gave her a bit hug as I chuckled at my situation. I then answered ten “why” questions – which were enough to satisfy her for the moment. I got a big hug and kiss and my little girl informed me that she was going to close my door because I need to work during lunch today.

The love and caring from my daughter’s visit, and my wife’s lunch preparation, relaxed me from my growing frustration. I chose to take a lunch break with my family. Then went back to my office refreshed and ready to tackle this problem.

You can probably guess where this story ends. With renewed calm and refilled patience, I quickly found the solution to my problem.

In this case, my family was instrumental in helping me in my business. It could have gone another way if I didn’t stop to appreciate the love from my daughter and wife in supporting my business; my wife with preparing food and my daughter’s lovely curiosity.

Stop for a few moments and consider how your family helps you with your business.