Correlated Aspects of Building Startups and Building Families
This weekend I enjoyed the end of year EO party for our Atlanta chapter. EO is filled with successful entrepreneurs, each having at least a $1 million revenue business. Many have much bigger businesses than that.
While at the event, I was struck by how many of the entrepreneurs had families. Many had multiple children. Many started having children before they found career success. It seems counter-intuitive to fight the struggles of starting a business while also building a young family. This weekend I realized that there are some commonalities among entrepreneur parents that start families before finding career success:
More Than Money
Entrepreneurs are driven by more than money. If the only goal in life is to make a top salary, there are much better and predictable career paths. Similarly, parents see beyond money and leisure to build a richer family life.
Doing Something Meaningful
Entrepreneurship is about doing something meaningful. It’s not about just working for the weekend. Artificial barriers of life are removed. It’s all real, all the time. Parenting shares those same attributes of being substantially meaningful and being part of something great.
Equity
Entrepreneurship is about building the value of equity. It’s a fuzzy concept and hard to measure exactly how much your work is paying off. Yet you pour your heart and soul into it and are super proud when it grows. Parenting children offers the same feeling of committed nurturing and pride of growth.
Risk Tolerance
Entrepreneurs have a high level of risk tolerance. It’s a requirement. You have to be willing to come up empty handed. Parents that take the financial risk of building families early and having multiple children are also taking a risk. Entrepreneur parents apply their natural tolerance for risk to both their startups as well as their choice to have children earlier than those who are risk averse.
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Of course, their are all types of successful people, families, and startups.
What similarities have you seen between building startups and building families?