Running a business doesn’t have to turn you into an absentee parent. You can use your business as a springboard for teaching your children important life lessons.
Nine years ago, I resigned from my Senior Instructional Designer and Teaching Faculty positions at a local university so that my husband and I could focus on raising a family.
Staying at home was the right choice for me; I wanted to have the opportunity to focus completely on the challenges and joys of motherhood. But, as it happened, my internal “professional” never quite went to sleep. When my daughters were two-and-a-half and 6 months old, my husband and I got an idea to create a game for the then-new Apple App Store.
Now, more than 40 apps later, we are the proud founders of Fairlady Media, developers of educational games for kids.
My original plan had been to go back to work once my youngest child was in kindergarten. As it turned out, our family business became my new profession, and my kids have witnessed (and experienced) the peaks and valleys typical of a start-up. Because they have been so involved with the development of our games (through play-testing, feedback, and voice acting) they have a real vested interest in the success of the business. We have chosen to be completely transparent with them as the business goes through its growing pains. They have learned some valuable life lessons in the process:
1. Even Grown-Ups Fail. We really fail.
Early summer, 2014. We had just released our newest game, Grandpa in Space. We had tested extensively on all of the devices that we had access to. However, our ratings on the App Store were taking a hard hit. Customers were reporting, “Screen is covered with red X’s. Please fix! 1 star.” We scrambled to get our hands on an iPad2 running an older version of the operating system, the one device we had not adequately tested on. Sure enough, the red X problem appeared. We were able to fix the bug, but we had no way to communicate with our customers during the week before the change could go live on the App Store. In the meantime, our sales, ratings, and company’s reputation suffered. Our kids watched us analyze and fix the problem, respond to support emails, and recover from the failure. It’s important for kids to see that adults fail, because it helps them set reasonable expectations for themselves.
2. Relationships Are Necessary for Success.
Relationships
Our kids have seen us ask friends and family to test our games. They have watched us attend conferences and have lengthy phone calls with other professionals in the industry. They have seen us hire and work with talented voice actors and sound designers. They have even been interviewed in front of a crowd at one of my favorite (kid-friendly) conferences in this industry, Dust or Magic App Camp.
Sometimes kids think that Mom and Dad are solo superheroes that magically make it all work out. It’s important for them to see that working collaboratively, trading services, seeking advice, sharing ideas, establishing partnerships, and resolving conflict are all important parts of a success story.
3. Family is More Important.
Yes, there are times when we need to prioritize the business in order to continue to be successful. However, it’s important to ask yourself, “Is the family running the business, or is the business running the family?”. We take regular days off and sometimes take extended family vacations to help keep a healthy work-life balance. Interestingly, the business benefits as well, because we always return from breaks feeling energized for the next project.
4. Our Family Can Make A Difference in the World.
Our kids are amazed that our apps have been played by enough people to fill more than 15 professional football stadiums. It’s a great feeling to know that our family has provided entertainment and education to millions of customers. I believe that it is important for children to understand that their actions have an impact on the world. By seeing our family business touch the lives of so many people, they better understand the influences of our actions. They see that we have a responsibility to make sure those influences are meaningful.
5. Persistence Pays Off.
Persistence. © Christopher Meder
Our kids have watched us fail, recover, and learn again and again. We have demonstrated that setbacks are valuable learning experiences. These repeated learning experiences have led to the success of several of our games, and of the company as a whole. We continue to set new goals for ourselves and then celebrate together when we have achieved them.
Sharing the ins and outs of your business can be a great way to help kids better understand how the world works. It can teach them about failure, learning from mistakes, relationships, making a difference, and persistence.
And in our case, it gives them a perfectly valid reason to ask their parents for an iPad! 😉
Learn more about Fairlady Media: http://www.fairladymedia.com.
Learn more about our educational apps for kids: http://appstore.com/fairladymedia.