Comments on: How Having a Baby Made Me a Better Entrepreneur

By: John Sierra

John Sierra — Tue, 03 May 2022 18:32:48 +0000

Alex,

This is a beautiful post. Found it by googling. I work full-time as a creative director, but my “passion that I’m building as a business” is songwriting. Being a singer-songwriter, in fact.

I put off having a son for fear of not being able to do both. That fear runs deep – awaiting his birth, I’ve waked with heart and mind racing.

It has been hard, even until now.
And I imagine it will be hard going forward…

Your words brought me some much needed hope. Thanks.

John
johnsierramusic.com

Ps. My son comes tomorrow!

By: Stephanie Clarkson

Stephanie Clarkson — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 05:32:16 +0000

Thank you. Myself and my partner are both entrepreneurs and are pregnant with our first child. To be honest I have been freaking out about the idea the business I’ve worked hard to build may come crashing down. You have given me mighty amounts of reassurance with your article!

By: Isa

Isa — Sat, 04 Mar 2017 20:55:50 +0000

I am not a native English speaker, so sometimes I mistake names/genders .. though you all sound male
I have a couple of questions for the (male) audience and speacially for ‘Alex from Groove’:
1) what does the mother of your children think?
2) do you think you’re spending enough time with your children?

PS I am a woman no children, and quite curious about your opinions (it’s usually women talking about this)

By: Pedro Ivo

Pedro Ivo — Wed, 28 Dec 2016 01:46:29 +0000

Right now I’m living pretty much the same experience. I got to the end of the year thinking a lot about how to deal with this two challenges: Malu (my baby) and Dito (my business). Thanks for sharing. It helped me a lot!

By: Pablo

Pablo — Sat, 15 Oct 2016 14:53:29 +0000

Hey Alex, congratulations on your second baby (being Groove your first one)! 😉

As in your business, this is the begining of wonderful and hard moments.

I wish you and Jaclyn the best luck! Welcome to the new member.

By: Prosper O.

Prosper O. — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 11:02:19 +0000

Been a big fan. Lovely post. a lot of it resonates I just had to comment this time.

By: Alex Ferguson

Alex Ferguson — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 04:54:50 +0000

Hey Alex – when I saw your post in my email, I was like, “Nice! I’m not alone!”

From one Alex to another, thank you! I’m super glad to see in particular your one line “And in a world where many founders are scared that they must choose between growing their family or growing their business, I want my story to make it very, very clear that you don’t have to make that choice.”

In all the business books and startup leaders I watch/follow, kept seeing that theme of “grind 16 hours a day, build your empire – then you can live good.” I didn’t want to wait, yet I didn’t want to give up on my “empire” idea.

Few months ago, about 1:30 AM while feeding my screaming 5month old son, I thought up a similar list as you: 9 similarities between babies & business. Wrote a quick article about it, mostly for my own sake: https://medium.com/@HeyFerguson/9-similarities-between-babies-business-372ae3727d67#.fe6paygyy

Please continue to share more of your story and plans to succeed as an entrepreneur AND father! Definitely more please! And congrats 😉

By: John Gilmore

John Gilmore — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 19:45:52 +0000

I wish so much this had been more true for me. Probably it’s the case that the range of disruption that having kids can bring to your current approach is pretty wide.

Also, if someone believes that they need XYZ, kids can bring perspective by forcing us to realize we only need Z. Or not even Z.

But there are cases where you do need Z, and can no longer have it, and at some point this can measurably impact your working capability.

(Edit 21 days later: Cut out some feeling sorry for myself)

This comment almost doesn’t belong here because the story of how kids can bring perspective and can benefit entrepreneurs is a real one. It’s just that it can also be true that a parenting situation can result in making it so you can’t do what you need to do. That like, maybe you really did need X and now you don’t have XYZ.

(edit 21 days later: cut more self pity)

Mostly, my situation has prevented me from recruiting others to work with me. I’m not willing to pull folks to a risky endeavor knowing I can’t give it what I believe it needs. It’s like when a CEO steps down 10 years in because she or he knows the company needs someone with different expertise for the next Phase. That’s how I feel at phase 1 now.

(edit 21 days later: just some bullshit that isn’t untrue or true but isn’t public comment worthy)

When you have kids, All other cans in life will at times be kicked down the road. Kids are the unkickable can. If you hate kicking cans down the road when you know they are mission critical cans, and you hate doing that even more than you dislike the monotony of parenting, become a full time dad. Then all the cans can stay unkicked. That’s my logic right now I guess.

Phew. What a downer. This is why no one tells you when parenting is not that great. It seriously isn’t worth discussing when it’s not great, because it’s too dark and irredeemably Whiny sounding. Sorry I commented. (Edit: I commented because I always appreciate your articles Alex, and appreciated and agree with this one, and also, I think it’s hard to know how kids will impact us. I continue to hope I’m wrong about the next five years. But my default has always been underestimating how much parenting is gonna overwhelm my capacity to work. Finally, I am attached to my kids now big Time. That’s definitely meaningful. At high cost, it feels, but it’s not nothing.)

By: Nate Portney

Nate Portney — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 17:03:44 +0000

I love the positive perspective Alex. But I’m not with family yet and building a biz. Sounds like you throw more chaos into already huge chaos. I’ve asked this question with others big successful businesses, most always say build your empire first, because then you won’t have time.

Also, if you are more focused and driven after a baby, then maybe one isn’t focused enough to begin with to do business. What’s wrong with self drive, 14hr days, without distractions, so you can crush it?! Thanks.

Anyone out there in this boat?

By: Nicholas Bird

Nicholas Bird — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 16:01:37 +0000

Love the analogies between the business and managing a newborn child. Well put. In my own mind, my kids provide a lot of the motivation behind things I do. It’s a beautiful thing to want to please, impress, and spend time with your kids. I know the better my business does, the more time I’ll have with them, cause that has always been the goal.
The only trick is, in order to keep that goal in focus, you have to be spending time with your kids along the way, otherwise you’ll just love your business and lose site of what matters.

By: Kiragu Gichuri

Kiragu Gichuri — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 15:52:43 +0000

Greeeeeat article. Also a founder, work from home and expecting the baby in 2 months. So much perspective as I was wondering how I’ll be able to manage both.
Thank you.