Fatherhood & Entrepreneurship

My writing skills have become little rusty...writing something after ages..So pardon me if what follows doesn't make any sense to you at all. But honestly I think making sense is so overrated, especially in the corporate world. Why can't we be authentic, why can't we be vulnerable at times. After all that's what makes us human - our emotions, our feelings.

Last 4 years have been a hell of a ride for me. When I look back, I feel nothing but a deep sense of gratitude and joy. Lucky to have gone through two most significant and soul lifting experiences - Being a Father & Being an Entrepreneur. Yes, both happened to me almost at the same time and I think they have complemented each other very well teaching me a lot of life skills needed to be good at both. I am very far from being perfect in any of them, but every single day I wake up with a resolve to do better and every night I go to bed thinking what could I have done better. Trust me it's so exciting to be not perfect and so liberating to accept that. In a corporate world we are always conditioned to be perfect - the perfect dress for an executive meeting, the perfect delivery, the perfect words, the perfect body language, the perfect presentation and the list goes on..There is nothing wrong in being perfect, but the problem is the line between actually striving for perfection vs portraying yourself to be perfect gets blurred more often than not. People can't just openly accept that they are working towards getting better at something as it may be construed as they being incapable, being weak. Then what will happen to your next appraisal, next promotion, next hike etc. etc...

The true strength lies in honestly accepting one's shortcomings and working towards it. Come to think of it, as a father that comes naturally to you. When I held my daughter for the first time, I was so so scared. She was so tiny. I didn't know where to support her neck while holding her, how to swaddle her, how to put her to sleep. I would have seen hundreds of videos on YouTube to just get it right..I didn't want to portray there that I know it all. I would rather share my fear and ignorance very openly with others. Why aren't we scared of being judged then. Technically people can perceive you as a terrible father not even knowing these basic things. But it never crosses your mind even for a fleeting moment. The reason is you genuinely want to learn and get better at it. This was actually a big realisation for me which helped me shape up as an entrepreneur. When you are running your own venture, people expect you to have solution for all the problems. You have two choices - you can put your " I am perfect & I know it all" facade or you can say " I don't know, let's try & see". If I wouldn't have gone through the experience of fatherhood, I would have most likely chosen the former path, but now I have no shame in doing the later 100 times a day. My co-founder also is a father of two kids. We want to build Smytten as a place where the new-father like innocence and eagerness to learn is intact with every individual in the organisation, where people are truly striving for perfection embracing all the imperfection that exists, where people are not afraid to say " I don't know". Again I wouldn't say we have been absolutely successful in achieving this, but we will learn everyday with an open mind and open heart to make this happen.