One of the best investments I’ve made in my own future was to help my wife set up a professional online teaching studio in our basement. With a standing desk, camera, headset, multiple screens, studio lights, and plenty of space for props, she gets to spend several hours each day teaching reading to young students across the country without ever leaving our home. After our own children completed their homeschooling with her, teaching reading online is the most fulfilling thing she can imagine being privileged to do.
But if she’s the one that’s using that studio, why do I call it an investment in my own future?
It wasn’t too long after she started teaching online that I wanted to leave my corporate job and focus on starting something of my own. When it comes to personal fulfillment, I find it far more in leadership and management coaching to help others succeed than I did in holding personal responsibility for software development and computer infrastructure.
My concentration on coaching new and mid-level engineering managers doesn’t provide nearly the financial income that my corporate leadership positions used to bring in. But my wife was fully supportive when I told her that I was ready to step away from the “stability” of a corporate job and pursue a business of my own.
I had supported her dream, and now she supported mine.
There are other dreams that we share together. Those are easy for both of us to support, because the reward of the dream will be shared. But I have found tremendous value in supporting the dreams that I don’t share with my family members.
When you hear goals that your family members have, consider what you might do to invest in helping them achieve those goals – even if you don’t get to share in accomplishing them. You never know how that investment will be repaid in helping you fulfill your own dreams.
And if their goal is to advance in a technical leadership career, consider supporting them by inviting them to schedule a complimentary conversation with me at stevedwire.com/talk.
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