Entrepreneurship or reward, the key to good parenting?
What's the greatest thing about entrepreneurship for me? Definitely the freedom that comes with entrepreneurship. What is the hardest thing about entrepreneurship for me? The same freedom that comes with the endless fear in the ass whether the next project will be handled so that there will be plenty of work and therefore more than just the top lip on the bread. I think many entrepreneurs subscribe to these two sides of entrepreneurship.
As much as I love entrepreneurship and the freedom it gives me to live the life I want, as a 50-year-old family man I sometimes wonder - every day, in fact, if I'm honest - whether it would be easier to be and live as an employee. Go to work at a set time, get on with the day, pop into the coffee shop now and then to fill up on more spending water and check out in the afternoon. After that, you can focus on the rest of your life outside of work. In entrepreneurship, work follows you around the clock, whether you like it or not. The line between work and everyday life blurs like a thief in the night. The gloves don't fall off at 4pm, but I do at least some thinking. Because I work at home and not in an office, the threshold for pulling out my laptop is much lower.
Before having a child, trying to do something was everything I ever wanted from my working life: the right balance of freedom and responsibility for my own actions. I created my own flexible schedule, so I could do whatever I wanted during the day. It was not uncommon for me to sit at the computer working while the rest of the world went out for the evening. In retrospect, that was true entrepreneurial freedom. It suited me.
Childless people may not realise how much free time they have at their fingertips. Now, as a father, I look back with longing on the days when I could concentrate on planning things, making phone calls, thinking and writing for hours on end without constant interruptions. As wonderful as it is to hear a three-year-old endlessly recounting the best Group Hau characters or Pipsa Pig, I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss that sometimes.
With only a little over three years of fatherhood experience under my belt, I can say with a light heart that combining entrepreneurship and parenthood is both possible and (sometimes) almost impossible. While I am able to adjust my schedule to suit my child's needs and get involved in both big and small things at short notice, doing creative and focused work at my desk is sometimes challenging.
At its best, combining entrepreneurship and parenting is also pedagogically rewarding, as I dare say that being an entrepreneur allows a parent to be more present in the life of a child. It is not as tightly chained to a time clock as it is in paid employment. It allows for a stronger role as an involved parent. This has been very important to me, because since the birth of my child I have wanted to be a father who is as involved as possible and as active as possible in my offspring's upbringing and growth.
But as my former partner said: there are no problems, there are only situations before solutions. Again, that requires both parents to understand each other's schedules and work commitments. That's why it's important to have an ongoing dialogue with your partner to maintain a consensus on how to make everyday life run smoothly. However, the responsibility for everything lies with us as parents, and the well-being of the child should be at the top of the priority list.
