Purpose

Empowering your kids seems like a logical choice if you want them to succeed when they encounter challenges without you. In theory, most parents think this is what they do on a daily basis. However, in reality, truly empowering your kids means giving up your power and supporting their power when they make a mistake that you saw coming well in advance. 

Many parents want to fix the mistakes they’ve made in their lives through controlling the lives of their kids. Sacrificing your power as a parent is the toughest part of parenting. Only a few really know how to do this. It is extremely difficult to give up this power and let your kids learn from their own mistakes. How can I be sure that they’ll be ok? How can I know they will learn from those mistakes and use those skills to make them happy? 

My solution is to help them develop a sense of purpose - a purpose in life that gives them a sense of fulfillment, accomplishment, and mastery. For me the most fulfilling purpose in my life has been in helping others without expectations. This principle has not only helped in making friends but more importantly networking and using the strengths of others to assist with my weaknesses and live to my potential. 

I started with this purpose when we started Zach & Cooper’s business. I said the best business will help others. The boys asked me, “How are we going to make money?” I thought long and hard about how to monetize their concept. 

When I think about helping others, I think about charity. Giving a service for free. Helping others without expectations includes money. So as I focused on combining these 2 concepts I figured out how to do this. 

Their main purpose is to give people value. Business can be cut throat. People think that in a dog-eat-dog world the winners play a zero sum game with one winner and one loser. Either we are making a profit or a customer is. However, being an entrepreneur to me is using your skills to create a proposition of value for both you and the customer. 

When your purpose is delivering value for your customer, it leads your behavior in a direction of empowerment for the customer and the business. With this sense of empowerment, I feel confident my boys will not only handle tough situations but learn from them as well.