Today, while playing cars on the floor with my kids, one of them looked up at me, smiled, and said, “You’re the best dad ever.” There was no prompting, no asking for praise. It just came out, pure and unfiltered.
Moments later, my daughter began talking about the butterfly effect, how small changes can shift the course of everything. She said she sometimes thinks about how her life might be different if things had gone another way. But then she paused and added, “I wouldn’t change anything. I live the best life ever.” She started listing the things that make our life beautiful: camping trips, digging our hands into the soil, laughing under open skies, living close to nature.
That moment hit me deeply. Not just as a father, but as a business owner, as a planner, as someone who wakes up every day thinking about the future not only mine, but my clients’ too.
Because parenting, business, and finances, they’re not separate lanes. They are deeply interconnected. They all come back to one word: legacy.
Parenting Is the First Business You Run
Being a parent is like being the CEO of your family. You’re managing time, resources, emotions, and planning for an unpredictable future. The stakes are high. The returns? Immeasurable.
You make sacrifices for your kids. You think about the long game. You invest in their future every single day whether it’s choosing to spend an hour on the floor playing cars instead of checking emails or planning family camping trips instead of high-end vacations because you value experience over status.
The best businesses are built the same way; with care, patience, vision, and heart. When I started my firm, I didn’t just want to build a business. I wanted to build something that aligned with my values as a parent.
What Parenting Teaches You About Finances
Parenting teaches you to think generationally. You stop living for just today. You start asking the hard questions:
- How do I provide stability now and in the future?
- How can I model healthy financial habits?
- What kind of legacy do I want to leave behind—not just in dollars, but in values, opportunities, and memories?
That’s why financial planning matters so much. It’s not about spreadsheets. It’s about the life those numbers empower. The choices they protect. The dreams they enable for your children and their children.
A Business Built on the Idea of Legacy
When I work with clients, I don’t just see balance sheets, I see stories. Families. Goals. Struggles. Triumphs. I ask myself, How can I help take care of them the same way I take care of my own family?
To me, legacy isn’t just about what you leave behind. It’s about what you live out, every single day.
It’s in how you treat people. How you serve your clients. How you show up with integrity, and how you build systems that last beyond you.
Why This All Matters
The joy of hearing “you’re the best dad ever” isn’t just about pride, it’s about alignment. It’s knowing that the way I live, the way I work, and the way I parent are in sync.
It’s also a reminder that success isn’t just measured in business growth or net worth, it’s measured in your children’s laughter, in their security, in their unprompted gratitude for the life you’ve built together.
And that’s what I want for my clients, too. Whether you’re starting a business, planning for retirement, or just trying to figure out the next step, remember, it’s all part of your legacy.
Build wisely. Live intentionally. And make room to get on the floor and play cars because those are the moments that tell you you’re on the right track.
