Bossing Up With Maddie Rae & Gary Vaynerchuk
Bossing up is a must for all generations.
Entrepreneurship has become the cool thing to do. It has no age limit and the barrier to start a business is at all-time lows.
It’s always the perfect time to start a business but it’s not easy. In fact, most people fail, almost all of them collapse. It happens to the best of them but people don’t glorify that part of the game.
As dads though, we show them both sides and expose them to opportunities where they can learn from all outcomes.
Sept 10th in NYC we did just that with 17 dads and 23 kids at Slime Bash. With the help of Maddie Rae, creator of Slime Glue and Slime Bash, we had the opportunity to learn from Gary Vaynerchuk.
It was dope and definitely a Cool4Dads Certifed Event! Here are some of the lessons I want to continue using with my kids.
Put it in work before anyone else.
During Gary’s talk, a young college man grabbed the mic to ask a question. After his intro Gary knew exactly who he was, half the room knew he was also. He had recently asked Gary if he could intern for him and even asked for Gary’s email. Gary’s response drew criticism from AdAge, but those that know, know.
Gary basically said, if you can’t find my email, how can you work for me? He got blasted but come on, you got to put the work in. Nick Anderson, got schooled in the most positive way and he came to THANK Gary for that. I had to clap for the young man, some lessons are harder than others to receive. He got it.
This is something I teach my son every day, put in the work! It’s so easy to use google and if they can’t do that, well someone like Gary might not help them. That doesn’t mean they can’t ask questions, it just means that they should first exhaust other ways to to get the answer before asking someone else to do it.
People live busy lives, especially in business, learning how to do for yourself is one of the most valuable lessons we can teach. Put in WORK!
Sacrifices have to be made
When you run a business, free time doesn’t come easy. Throw in 3 kids and free time barely exists. But when you want it, you have to sacrifice things. This is one of the lessons kids have to learn from the start.
Gary talked about losing out on some the “fun” things your friends are doing. All because you are running a business! People think starting a business affords you an abundance of free time, but when you 1st start, that’s not the case.
When you start, free time is exchanged for catching up on emails or social media updates. Free time is called sleeping, even those bathroom runs are occupied with a device of some sort.
Kids see the cool side of entrepreneurship but they don’t see the sacrifices Maddie Rae made to build Slime Glue. The lost friendships, the lost family relationships, the lost hours of randomly replying to social media messages.
All that takes a hit, sacrifices have to be made, teach them that and remind them its all worth it!
Exposure Is Everything
Even though I ran a tech education company, my oldest never went to my events. That was my bad, but I thought he wasn’t ready. He still might not be ready but now I don’t miss the opportunity to teach him about entrepreneurship. You shouldn’t either.
It might spark something in them the 1st day or it might take some time to marinate like my son. One thing for sure, you won’t ever find out unless you expose them to that world. My son has read all of Gary’s books, but actually being in attendance added a different element to it.
To be honest, he was tired of reading Gary’s books. It wasn’t his choice to read them, I had him read them for his school assignments. It was my way of keeping track of his work and exposing him to something I messed with. Now he wants to know when we can see him again!
It starts with exposure, and I could tell that the dads were proud to have their kids in attendance. I was one of them.
Bossing up doesn’t happen overnight.
We all want our kids to boss up and run or create a company but it doesn’t happen overnight.
Events like Slime Bash are a great way to introduce your kids to entrepreneurship or simply help them expand on their current business. The vibes in rooms full of hustlers are infectious and can lead to some really dope things.
It’s up to us to expose our kids to the worlds we feel they can thrive in. It’s also up to us to support their dreams however we can. Teach them to always put in work first and that sacrifices have to be made to thrive.
We got one life to live if your kids want to be boss, help them chase that dream. 17 dads did that with us at Slime Bash and I can guarantee you not one of them regrets it.
Make your presence felt!
