Innovating with AI - The 100x family-time strategy

Hey there,

Last time, I talked about building a company that truly empowers employees – a place where I’d want to work, even if I was the intern rather than the owner.

Today, I want to talk about making time for my family all families.

Story Time: When my son was in second grade, I volunteered in his class every week to help kids with literacy.

One day when I arrived, one of his classmates turned to the teacher and shouted:

“Oh, look, Mr. Howard is the Mom Helper today!”

Lots of parents came in to help – but, apparently, not a lot of dads…

I don’t like that.
Family time matters.
Period.

That’s why I’ve designed my company so that I’m not the only one that can do this.

Everyone who works at HDC has the freedom to volunteer at school at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday.

But it’s about more than flexibility – it’s also about my mission to help the people around me grow and learn.

It’s about going all-in on being the most caring, most present, and most honorable husband and father that I can be.

Rather than allow the success of my business to suck me into more and more work, I very intentionally parlay that success into more time with my family.

I know it’s a cliche to say “you only live once.”

But how many nights, weekends, bedtimes and school days should we sacrifice at the altar of work?

When we look back, which are we more likely to regret: turning down a client project, or missing those special family moments?

This philosophy applies to pretty much every area of life: I am not my job.

Instead, I am defined by how many people I can help with the resources I’ve accumulated from having a successful tech career.

One of those resources is time – so I can give my son 100x more love and attention than my dad was able to give me.

So I can be a true teacher and mentor to him and his friends, never trading precious family time to burn the midnight oil at work. Work comes and goes, but kids are only kids for a very limited time.

And to paraphrase some ancient wisdom: “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken adults.”

Another resource, of course, is money – and next time, we’ll talk about how running a business allows me to empower others through charitable giving in a way that I would never be able to do otherwise.

See you then,

– Rob from Innovating with AI

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