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Getting Unscripted while having small kids

Topics relating to managing people and relationships

Djioul

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Hi everyone,

I've just finished reading the Great Rat Race Escape a few days ago (again, a masterclass from MJ !).

One of the major takeaways for me is related to my situation: getting unscripted while having small kids.
As I am in this situation right now, I read the book through this paradigm and I found it interesting.

My situation is: I am married and have 2 kids (4 y.o. and 6 months old). I am working at a 40 h / week job while my wife stopped working when we welcomed our first kid and is currently still at home. We started a side hustle in March (to gain a first experience & my wife needed to do something else than only taking care of kids) and we are launching a bigger business in September.

My question is : are there some people on this forum who were (or are) on the same situation ? How did you handle the situation ? We are not affraid of putting a lot of work but (and I don't use it as an excuse, it is a fact) taking care of small kids also takes a lot of time.
Some advices or return of experience would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your hindsights.
 
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EternalStudent

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Hi everyone,

I've just finished reading the Great Rat Race Escape a few days ago (again, a masterclass from MJ !).

One of the major takeaways for me is related to my situation: getting unscripted while having small kids.
As I am in this situation right now, I read the book through this paradigm and I found it interesting.

My situation is: I am married and have 2 kids (4 y.o. and 6 months old). I am working at a 40 h / week job while my wife stopped working when we welcomed our first kid and is currently still at home. We started a side hustle in March (to gain a first experience & my wife needed to do something else than only taking care of kids) and we are launching a bigger business in September.

My question is : are there some people on this forum who were (or are) on the same situation ? How did you handle the situation ? We are not affraid of putting a lot of work but (and I don't use it as an excuse, it is a fact) taking care of small kids also takes a lot of time.
Some advices or return of experience would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your hindsights.
I’m in a similar situation , I have a 2 year old and a 8 month old. I’m yet to get my business off the ground though so you are ahead of me!
You have early mornings and late nights as your options to get anything done one advantage you have over your childless peers is that you understand every minute is precious. Don’t waste time on reddit, reading news etc
 

ZCP

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@Djioul How CAN you vs why CAN'T you ...... the key mindset.

You have an advantage with kids! Extra workforce, motivation, a way to blow off steam w/o spending money, ideas from their interests and interactions...

Whether you think you CAN or CANNOT, you are right!

My kids have been involved in, have been the inspiration for, and even are the reason for the name of one in my businesses. It is all in the way you frame it.

Put your time into what is important. Do your fastlane plan WITH your family and you get a 2 for 1 on time!
 

Andy Black

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Hi everyone,

I've just finished reading the Great Rat Race Escape a few days ago (again, a masterclass from MJ !).

One of the major takeaways for me is related to my situation: getting unscripted while having small kids.
As I am in this situation right now, I read the book through this paradigm and I found it interesting.

My situation is: I am married and have 2 kids (4 y.o. and 6 months old). I am working at a 40 h / week job while my wife stopped working when we welcomed our first kid and is currently still at home. We started a side hustle in March (to gain a first experience & my wife needed to do something else than only taking care of kids) and we are launching a bigger business in September.

My question is : are there some people on this forum who were (or are) on the same situation ? How did you handle the situation ? We are not affraid of putting a lot of work but (and I don't use it as an excuse, it is a fact) taking care of small kids also takes a lot of time.
Some advices or return of experience would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your hindsights.
You have less time, and you won’t get much focused time. Use those constraints to build income streams and a business that requires less time. Constraints force ingenuity. (Dad of three kids and a stepson here.)
 
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Djioul

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I’m in a similar situation , I have a 2 year old and a 8 month old. I’m yet to get my business off the ground though so you are ahead of me!
You have early mornings and late nights as your options to get anything done one advantage you have over your childless peers is that you understand every minute is precious. Don’t waste time on reddit, reading news etc
Indeed, that's quite a similar situation.
Time management is even more important as you have to mximize every opportunity, I agree. Already made a lot of improvements there but still some work to do in terms of discipline.
 

Djioul

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@Djioul How CAN you vs why CAN'T you ...... the key mindset.

You have an advantage with kids! Extra workforce, motivation, a way to blow off steam w/o spending money, ideas from their interests and interactions...

Whether you think you CAN or CANNOT, you are right!

My kids have been involved in, have been the inspiration for, and even are the reason for the name of one in my businesses. It is all in the way you frame it.

Put your time into what is important. Do your fastlane plan WITH your family and you get a 2 for 1 on time
It's again a question of mindset, true... I have to switch it in order to see my kids as an advantage instead of a constraint. Good point.

Without going into details you can't give. How old were your kids and how were they involved ?
 

Djioul

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You have less time, and you won’t get much focused time. Use those constraints to build income streams and a business that requires less time. Constraints force ingenuity. (Dad of three kids and a stepson here.)
That's the main concern I have right now. The business we are about to start in September with my wife requires a lot of time on the road visiting potential customers which are geographically far from one another... I have a strange gut feeling but I don't kno if it is only the fear of starting or kind of the desert of desertion that MJ spoke about in his books. At the moment, I have the feeling that every other idea is better than mine...

We should get started and then evaluate if the idea was good, do an excellent execution and then check if everything is ok.
 
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YanC

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At the moment, I have the feeling that every other idea is better than mine...
You need to differenciate real signals that might indicate that the idea is not worth pursuing, from purely psychological stuff AKA shiny object syndrome. I would say the latter is more probable. Every time I have an idea, I first get excited about it, start working on it, then face the first hurdles and start doubting it. This is where you have to push through in order to make something happen. The only way to know if it will work is to do it.
 

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I started my unscripted journey 10 years ago. We got our first kid 7 years ago. My wife joined the unscripted journey 5-6 years ago and we started our "real" business 5 years ago. 4 years ago we got our second kid. We run a software agency with 25 employees right now and co-founded two startups with this agency, where we are responsible for the technology in both startups. One is raising a Series A right now, the other one is launching its product later this year.

Becoming parent started the "real" journey for me. Before that I war learning a lot, but basically I was wishing and playing around. The two kids give a true meaning to all our business work.

A few of the best books I read about business are "Good to Great" and "Built to Last" from Jim Collins. There he refers to "20 mile marches" as a key concept, to keep traction and progress for very long periods of time.

I've always been a hard worker and I'm not afraid of long hours. But the kids are putting a natural limit to endless nights and that forces us into that sustainable "20 mile march" mode. And even if that feels unproductive in the very short-sighted view, it really helps us achieve a lot more stuff in the long term.

I would say, that our kids are the main reason for our successes over the last few years.
 

Djioul

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You need to differenciate real signals that might indicate that the idea is not worth pursuing, from purely psychological stuff AKA shiny object syndrome. I would say the latter is more probable. Every time I have an idea, I first get excited about it, start working on it, then face the first hurdles and start doubting it. This is where you have to push through in order to make something happen. The only way to know if it will work is to do it.
True, as I lack from experience, it is quite difficult to interpret the signals.
As you say, the best way to figure out is to execute the idea and to evaluate if my concerns are real or not.
 
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Djioul

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I started my unscripted journey 10 years ago. We got our first kid 7 years ago. My wife joined the unscripted journey 5-6 years ago and we started our "real" business 5 years ago. 4 years ago we got our second kid. We run a software agency with 25 employees right now and co-founded two startups with this agency, where we are responsible for the technology in both startups. One is raising a Series A right now, the other one is launching its product later this year.

Becoming parent started the "real" journey for me. Before that I war learning a lot, but basically I was wishing and playing around. The two kids give a true meaning to all our business work.

A few of the best books I read about business are "Good to Great" and "Built to Last" from Jim Collins. There he refers to "20 mile marches" as a key concept, to keep traction and progress for very long periods of time.

I've always been a hard worker and I'm not afraid of long hours. But the kids are putting a natural limit to endless nights and that forces us into that sustainable "20 mile march" mode. And even if that feels unproductive in the very short-sighted view, it really helps us achieve a lot more stuff in the long term.

I would say, that our kids are the main reason for our successes over the last few years.
Very inspiring !
Thanks for the reply and also for the books.

If I might ask, what did you do during the first 3 years of your unscripted journey ?
 

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It's again a question of mindset, true... I have to switch it in order to see my kids as an advantage instead of a constraint. Good point.

Without going into details you can't give. How old were your kids and how were they involved ?
7 to 10 is a great age. They can start to understand the money, cost / gross margin, overhead.

@amp0193 had his putting stickers on shipping boxes younger than that.

It is the family unit that does ALL things together. Business weaves into the fabric of life and provides benefits TO and FOR the family. Get them involved in that!
 

Djioul

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7 to 10 is a great age. They can start to understand the money, cost / gross margin, overhead.

@amp0193 had his putting stickers on shipping boxes younger than that.

It is the family unit that does ALL things together. Business weaves into the fabric of life and provides benefits TO and FOR the family. Get them involved in that!
It's true that our 4 yo is already "helping" and is interested in everything we do with our side hustle. She now wants to sell some of her stuffs like her Mom is doing. I did not even notice it...

Again, the lesson here for me is:
- see my kids as an advantage / asset
- learn from them, their behavior, their creativity
- involve them: it is a family journey

Thanks
 
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Rincewind

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If I might ask, what did you do during the first 3 years of your unscripted journey ?

I tried many things, but basically I had to learn from scratch. I finished my studies as Engineer (Dipl. Ing. and Master of science) a few years before and worked some years as an employee for large companies as Airbus. But it didn't fulfil me. Still I grew up 20 years within the script and tried to be a better employee and finance a house and two cars. Fortunately I did not buy a house and sold the cars. Instead I started learning. Funfact: I only found MJs books after I got free of the script for some time. It simply put all my gut feelings into a very good framework.

In my first years of getting unscripted I started working as a freelancer to have more control about my time and simply sell my time for more money. And I tried blogging, learned online marketing and selling and I co-founded my first "startup". There I had a co-founder who could sell himself very well, but nothing else. So I learned that a business without a business model is no business. So I tested many ideas and started seeing problems and testing solutions.
 

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