Family

Love Triangles

As we celebrate our love for one another, Valentine’s Day felt like a heartfelt time to reflect on building a business with and around members of your family.

The permanence of family leads to many business partnerships. Some operations pass from one generation to the next. Others spawn when family members decide to start something new. Still more businesses come together as people create new family bonds and merge their work into love triangles.

It seems obvious to start something with those you love. In some cases, the convenience makes it easy. In other cases, it can become a necessity to turn the family into a team. No matter the why, transparency and trust within a family is hard to beat. This allows family members to wholeheartedly lean on one another. Such an unwavering ability to count on each other is why family businesses always have a chance.

While family businesses can thrive for generations, there are dangerous downsides as well. Not everyone who loves each other should work together. Home and work are often like night and day. The difference between the two makes each one better. Living and working with family makes it hard to separate the two. This can lead to arguments that extend far beyond the office. These inescapable emotions can damage relationships and bleed into the broader team. While you’ll spend the most time with your family, building a life together doesn’t mean you have to work on the same thing. A healthy amount of individuality allows each person to do more and space makes coming back home even sweeter.

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Do you work with family? If so, share your best tips in the comments! Also, did you know Brad Feld and Amy Batchelor wrote an entire book on this, called Startup Life?

Whether you build a business together or not, family dynamics affect all entrepreneurs. The most direct impact comes from your significant other. Your co-founder in life has a huge influence on your ability to thrive as an entrepreneur. Almost like separations of power, each person can provide contrasting perspectives, honest feedback and valuable support to balance the time, financial and emotional responsibilities of life.

Co-founders in life who share authentic trust give each other stability, fewer restrictions and more opportunities. If you find the love of your life, help them be their best. Admit they are the better half and be humble enough to let them return the favor. Such motivation from inside the home fuels a deep sense of abundance. The result is a more determined mind, body and soul eager to learn from the person who knows you best. This constant support brews loving vibes that spill into your work. Two people who push each other to be better than they would have been alone is the ultimate gift.

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To love is to share life together,
to build special plans just for two,
to work side by side,
and then smile with pride,
as one by one, dreams all come true.
The Meaning of Love – Krina Shah
By Ben McDougal, ago

Pure Wonder

Children embody a state of wonderment.
They wake up each morning without a plan.

They have no preconceptions. No judgments. No worries. This lack of anticipation allows kids to live naturally in the moment. These littles get excited about teeny things and cry over nothing. Their states of wonder are fascinating.

Now, fast forward 20 years. The world hardens us. We want to impress and make our mark, but life is exhausting. A loudness disguised as busy is distracting. The need to make ends meet adds constant noise. Our experiences make us intelligent, capable, and aware of our surroundings, but they may limit our ability to feel the silence of pure wonder.

Occasionally, trade a daily grind with thinking like a child. Pretend you were born yesterday. Be silly. Forget the agenda. Color outside lines. Get weird to solve problems. Laugh at mistakes. Play in your sandbox and get messy.

Wonderment can shrink the ego to make room for more. What you’re building matters, and if you discover pure wonder, be thankful and pass it on.

Brewed From Within
#67 📖 Technology

By Ben McDougal, ago

Love Letters

Relationships with a loving spouse may be the single most impactful element of an entrepreneurial lifestyle.

Co-founders in life may not fully understand their partner’s ambition, but with trust minted, healthy individuality allows each person to achieve more.

To visualize how trust creates exponential opportunity, imagine one of your hands is you and the other hand is your partner. First, put your hands together and make the shape of an A. When relationships are built this way, a line of trust is established, but the top point of constant contact limits how far each line can go.

Now, use your hands and make an H. The center line of trust remains, but now there’s room for individuality. Each of the two horizontal lines can continue to grow beyond what would have been possible alone.

Individuality can feel apathetic, but when two people trust each other enough to build their own neon future, a brilliant fabric is set free to shine. This fabric becomes unbreakable as threads of intention weave together with boundless love. The result is a home team with exponential potential.

Even with trust-enabled individuality, a shared appetite for risk depends on current events, the environment, engaged networks, and what resources our partners provide. The quiet truth is that stability is paramount when there is a singular source of financial income. With multiple sources of income, there may be more comfort in the unknowns that come with building something new. Current situations will always present limitations, but love and respect shimmers when we produce more than we consume.

If creation brings us to life, how do we increase a partner’s appetite for calculated risks? When our art becomes a way of being, life-work balance is seen for what it actually is: a fanciful distraction reserved for the status quo. Harmony then awaits those who encourage the creative seasons of their forever friend. This unselfish support fuels positive momentum that strengthens our partners. Setting this example adds space for our own explorations. As both partners keep their promise while also quitting the right things at the right time, trust thickens and the loving leash is lengthened with even more freedom to flex.

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Results add up as promises are kept.

We may all have a creative spirit, but when a shared appetite for risk is applied, the innovative spirit gets stirred into a recipe that’s tasted with endless variety.

It’s seen as students tinker without permission needed. It’s indispensable intrapreneurs fueling positive change in existing companies. It’s volunteering for a cause, side hustles that evolve a diversified career portfolio, and founders solving problems with pain-killing solutions.

Humans seek purpose, love, peace, and happiness. Often, the partners we choose have the most direct influence on our ability to coordinate this quadrivium. With a home team advantage tuned in trust, our work can be ambitious. As our communities blend in, full alignment results in career nirvana.

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I am nothing without the love we share.

Be kind to yourself by choosing a partner wisely. As you build with co-founders in life, be your best knowing that when the credits roll on a life well-lived, your loved ones will be first, last, and all that’s in between.

Brewed From Within
#116 📖 Life & Happiness

"Dedicated to my co-founder in life and our startup that pays in love."
By Ben McDougal, ago