What has been your family's reaction to your entrepreneurial activities?

[Authentic]

What has been your family's perspective and response to you partaking in entrepreneurial activities and not sticking with a 9-5 M-F job?

My mother sometimes looks like she has her heart broken.

I need to save my mother from poverty. I cannot quit. I will not fail.

 

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[Eisenstein]

Hey Authentic!
First of all, i wish you much success! This sounds like a big intrinsic motivation, so do your best!

The reaction of my parents were okay. They understand my points rationally, but now and then their fear and mindset of a good employee comes through. But i guess ... they accepted it.

 

[Late Bloomer]

[ edited to delete personal info that I realized I only want to share once I've paid for the Insider subscription, but not for the general public ]

 

[Andrew J.]

My family thinks I am insane, naive or both. I believe it is better not to discuss such matters with them.

 

[SquatchMan]

My mom still doesn't quite understand the concept, I think. Anytime I mention something about a business her eyes just glaze over and she somehow finds a way to tie it back to a criticism of Donald Trump (wut?) or she mentions that the federal government and city government are hiring. My dad doesn't seem to care.

Oh well. It used to get me bent out of shape, but now I just smile & nod. Much less stressful.

 

[WJK]

Good luck! You know, having a job to pay the bills today is a good idea. You have to live somewhere and eat every day while you're building a business. I have been self-employed just about all of my adult life.
But, when I was young, I bartended at night & I did some other side jobs while I built my business during the day.

 

[Authentic]

Thanks everyone for sharing your insights and your stories.

 

[Flybye]

...I need to save my mother from poverty. I cannot quit. I will not fail.

Best motivation yet! I wish you the best of luck.
My main motivation is to get my father retired and no longer having him to worry about money.

My entire family has been nothing but supportive. Everyone wants the business to do well, and I have never even gotten one negative comment from anyone. But this comes from a family with several small business or have had, and I am blessed to have a family that looks more forward than throwing negativity around.

 

[JAJT]

Honestly, it's about the same as talking to most people about any other job.

Nobody really wants lots of detail because work is work and unless there's a cool story behind it - nobody really cares.

My buddy is a building technician - and sometimes a cool story comes up that's fascinating, but on the whole nobody wants to hear about everything that goes into clearing a blocked pipe or maintaining the air conditioning system for a commercial building. It's just "work".

Sure, most folks look at you like you have two heads when they find out you don't have a boss to report to, but like any other specialized profession, nobody wants you to get too deep into it unless you have a cool story to tell.