It All Starts At Home

It’s been said many times, we can choose our friends but we can’t choose our family. Many have difficult family situations and believe we have no choice in that matter while others grew up with a loving family that provided the foundation needed to succeed. Some successful people were raised well by their parents and started getting into business at an early age. They took advantage of the privileged to learn - fearlessly embracing failure and learning from the experience. While some are fortunate to have this kind of family not everyone has that luxury. Others label themselves unfortunate or broken and life can be a never-ending road of enduring feeling of not being good enough. Maybe they grew up in a broken family, convinced they were not capable of being all that they can be. If that’s you, it doesn't need to stay that way. Sure you cannot choose your family but, you can embrace hardship from the past and use it to help shape your future and positively impact your family.

There are so many inspiring rags to riches stories and some of them did not even grow up with their biological parents yet achieved great success. I’m sure you’ve heard of Steve Jobs. He was widely recognized as a businessman, designer and investor known for his influential career as the co-founder and chief executive officer of Apple Inc. His biological parents were unmarried and still in college so they gave him up for adoption. He was adopted at birth by Paul & Clara Jobs. Paul was working as a machinist for a company and because of that, he taught Steve how to work on electronics and how to work with his hands. In their family garage, he would show him how to disassemble and rebuild electronics. This is where Steve developed his hobby of technical tinkering. Although it was known to many that Steve was dropped out of school because Reed is an expensive school which his parents couldn’t afford, his dreams did not end there. He had several jobs to make ends meet. Steve Jobs along with his friends started their dream in the garage of Job’s parents, the making of Apple computer and the rest is history.

Quality time with family is a big factor of a happy family unit. Although sometimes it’s difficult to pull away from our careers to simply hang out, have a conversation, play and love on each other, they are moments you’ll never get back. Business may still be there, but your children won’t ever be that age, at that moment ever again. The values and traditions you pass on to your children will definitely influence them as they grow. The behavior of growing children is influenced by many factors that include their parents and the community. And it all starts at home.

Many businesses are born out of inspiration and this drives us to do many things. As we all know, family life forges character and is our primary environment that influences our choices and habits. Home is the best place to learn, fail and to grow to know yourself. When the going gets rough and you have to deal with a lot of pressure, home should always be your source of strength and security. Never forget the importance of family in your success and how you impact the success of your family.