How My Wife and Baby Have Made Me A Better Entrepreneur

family entrepreneurshipIf you were isolated in a room, with no contact with anyone, how successful would you be at your online endeavors?  My guess is not very successful.

Now, imagine building an online business without the support of your family and friends.  How successful would you be?  Not very…

But until recently, I think I took this for granted.  I never really understood what it meant to have a support system in place to help push my business and myself forward.  But it all clicked for me last month when I went to the Financial Blogger Conference.  Here was my wife, with our 10 week old baby at home, encouraging me to go since building an online business was incredibly important to me.  That was huge.

And, in hindsight, it was just one of many experiences that has helped make me a better entrepreneur.  And I don’t want to have any entrepreneurial regrets

Let me share how my wife and baby have helped me become a better entrepreneur, and hopefully you can see some parallels to you own life and journey.

 

Feedback and Support

For me, feedback and support has been huge.  The encouragement you get from someone who you want to share your life with is unlike any other you will receive in your life.  It means more knowing that your closest companion has your back.

I honestly couldn’t imagine the opposite being true – if my wife didn’t have my back and encourage my success, I would fail – even with the same business circumstances.

But, being supportive also doesn’t mean just being a yes-man.  I appreciate my wife because she can also tell it to my like it is.  In fact, some of my most popular articles were her ideas, and my worst performing articles were also ones she said I shouldn’t do…  Funny how I should probably listen to her more often (once again, hindsight is 20/20).

But that’s the great thing about support – it’s there when you need it, but it’s also there when you don’t need it.

 

Productivity

Let me tell you something – having a baby has boosted my productivity to crazy levels!  Actually, it has done two things that combined, have made me more productive:

  1. I really have to decide what projects to work on since my time is limited
  2. When I have time, I take it to the full advantage

Right now, my son is at that stage where he only sleeps for about 5 hours at a stretch at night, but he’s so awake during the day!  I’m lucky if he’ll take a 45 minute nap – but at that point, I’m exhausted because he’s been going all day.  Instead, I’ve taken to staying up late and getting up early.

My usual routine now involves me putting the boy to bed around 9pm, hanging out with the wife for a bit, and then working on my projects from about 10pm to midnight.  Then, getting up at 5am is a pretty common occurrence to get in about 30 minutes to an hour of work before the nine to five begins.

But, if you read my last month’s income report, you’ll know it was my best month this year!

 

True Purpose

Finally, my wife and son give me true purpose in life.  I set my goal of working for myself by the time I’m 30 at the beginning of the year with the abstract notion of spending time with my family.  However, now that my son is here, it’s not just an abstract.  There is nothing more I love than hanging out with my little dude.

Based on our schedules, I basically get all day Wednesday and Thursday alone with my son, and I love it!  This time shows me that I would seriously enjoy being a work-from-home dad.  And my wife would actually still want to work – she can’t stay at home, it drives her nuts.

So, now my goals align with my true purpose and it makes my mission even more personal and purposeful.

Now you really understand how my family drives me everyday.  What drives you everyday?

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Comments

  1. 9-5,

    This post really resonates with me because I am going through the same thing. Building a blog, and I have a 21 month and 2 month. I spend a lot of time with my oldest after work, which pushes blog time to later. And I am up early. But they do drive to to be more efficient with my time and make me want to be more successful in my professional life and my pursuit of financial independence.

    -RBD

  2. My daughters drive me. They’re only three and four but they know when I’m not happy even if I try to cover it up. The past few weeks since I have been working from home I have had so much less stress. The girls and I have also been going and visiting family more since I am forcing myself to get out of the house, at least a little.

    Kids are the best thing in the world!

  3. I truly enjoyed this post as it is very similar to the position I’m in.

    I have a toddler son and an infant son, my toddler cries when I leave in the morning to come to work. Being away 10 hours a day is torture for both of us and seeing him begging me to stay home rips my heart out and makes me want to tell my boss to go…..well…..you know.

    Since July I have been working on several online ventures to free my time and give my sons all the time in the world with dad. My goal is to be completely self sufficient in a year. Like you I am up late at night and up at 4:30am to work on these projects.

    Until I had children I only thought about college degrees, career, corporate ladder, salary and titles. Now I want time. My time with my children is the most precious thing in the world. I spend every second I can with them and their mother and I can’t believe I’ve been so blind all my life. I’m 42 and it saddens me that I am just now realizing all this.

    I wish all of you freedom to spend your time with your little ones. Family is all we have in this life and it’s family that gives us substance and meaning. Every day is a gift, every breath, every sun up and sun down and every single second you get to share your time with your children is priceless. Tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone, it’s right now that matters most.

    Freedom!!!!!!

  4. I really believe in Parkinson’s Law, which says that the amount of time you need to complete a tas will fit the amount of time you actually have. Having a family as really tightened up how I spend my time and far less of it leaks away on frivolous things.

  5. It’s great that you have such a supportive network. I don’t have children yet, but I am sure it’s a huge driving factor in life. It sounds like your wife and baby are very lucky that you are so devoted!

  6. I’m in the same boat.

    Little Warrior is 8 months old and couldn’t be more motivating to us getting rid of our debt, building savings/investments, and, most importantly right now, expanding our income streams. It’s a struggle at times and definitely a wear on Mrs Warrior and I, but it is all worth it.

    In an interview a while back, John Lee Dumas told Pat Flynn that the biggest motivator for the people he interviews has been becoming a new parent. Couldn’t agree more.

    The Warrior
    NetWorthWarrior.com

  7. It is really hard to work at home when there are kids around. Nevertheless, I like spending time with my lovely daughter.

  8. I find myself wasting time on frivolous things such as cpc earning increase in last 30 mins, no. of page views in last two hours, etc. I wish I can devote my entire time to actual productive and satisfactory work.

  9. Great post! My life forever changed 3 months ago with the birth of my first child. I, like you, find myself being more productive because of her. I work from home, but she keeps me pretty busy throughout the day. I know once I lay her down, I typically have about 45-60 minutes of time to get some work done.

    Some days she spoils me with a 2-3 hour nap and I find myself constantly checking on her to make sure everything is ok 🙂

  10. Thought provoking! I am a single mom and my daughter is very supportive in what I do as a virtual assistant. She keeps the rest of the family quiet (read: my brother and niece} whenever I am working or has a meeting with a client….and when I’m sleeping late from burning the midnight oil. Now, if only I could get her interested in the same career…. hehehehe but she wants to fly!

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