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Family Life

Family life contains many unexpected surprises, as the loss of one baby and the early birth of my daughter demonstrated. I found I could balance the demands of a family, including the surprises, with those of being an entrepreneur, but there was no such thing as "having it all." The balance between home and work is another case of good things being at the expense of other good things. Everyone must prioritize and make choices like in all other areas of life.

Communicating my vision and objectives at home was as important as communicating them at the office. Doing so removed uncertainty for my family in the same way it removed uncertainty for my employees. My informal contract with Connie regarding the founding of Banner Blue was my first step in accomplishing this. I am sure Connie would agree that I could have done a better job of communicating the month-to-month objectives; but when I did, home life went much more smoothly.

I also tried to imagine myself looking backwards from some time in the future to insure that I did not neglect my family on one day in a way that I would regret the next. I placed special importance on attending events, making a point not to miss a birthday, anniversary, doctor's appointment, school meeting, school performance, or dinner at home.

In fact, I tried to create regular family events. The risk for the entrepreneur is to be there without really being there, preoccupied with matters at work. That is the benefit in making a common occurrence like a family dinner into more of an event. If I gave a few minutes thought ahead of time to what I wanted to talk about at dinner, then interaction with my family came naturally even if the day's events made me tired and stressed. As Amber got older we turned every Friday into family movie night. We choose a movie together, then eat pizza in front of the television while watching the video.

Surprisingly to me, the sale of Banner Blue was a disappointment to Amber. Whereas I grew up thinking I would work for a large company, she thought she would work for me — and maybe she will. At the same time, while it took me quite some time to become comfortable with the idea of starting my own company, Amber comes up with ideas for a company on a regular basis. I created a home environment where for her, starting a company is the natural thing to do.

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