Let\u2019s start with a story. A friend of a friend has the Child Madness. You know what I\u2019m talking about. She\u2019s expecting, and she\u2019s read or is reading every word ever written on the production and maintenance of very small people.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s got every child-rearing trend on lock, annotated with ten arguments for it and twelve against. She may be knitting things. And of course – to judge by my own online experience, I\u2019m pretty sure this is federal law for parents-to-be – she\u2019s Facebooking every last bit of the above.<\/p>\n
Quite right, too. Having a child is a BIG DEAL. I don\u2019t even have one of the little creatures. All\u2019s I got is a considerably littler sister. It\u2019s not even the same thing, and real talk: she\u2019s got a great boyfriend (which, being the protective older brother, translates to \u201cboyfriend I don\u2019t want to tase unconscious and FedEx to space\u201d), a job that probably paid more last month than I\u2019ve made this year, and I still spend a solid 51% of my RWM – that\u2019s Random Worrying Memory – on her wellbeing. Raising that to the level proper for a person you created? I can\u2019t imagine. Literally. Wigging out is called for.<\/p>\n
Thing is, FoaF is also a business owner. Roundabout the same time she was burning through baby books and cranking classical for her lower abdomen, she asked the friend we had in common how to put together a P&L sheet. She\u2019d been in business ten years. Not long after, our friend asked what email client her business used. They do 40% of their business through email. She didn\u2019t know. What?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not equating the value of a child to a business. To my knowledge, I\u2019m not a sociopath. But it did get me thinking, and I spotted a lesson.<\/p>\n
Why not worry about one the way you worry about the other?<\/p>\n
Is there a better example, anywhere, of all-out borderline compulsive prep work than expecting parents? Seriously, spend five minutes on Facebook. I\u2019ll wait. Books and classes, diet and exercise, and it all starts on day one, part of the process the moment the appropriate thing turns blue. \u201cEh, I\u2019ll wing it\u201d ain\u2019t exactly best practice. Say what you want about the Child Madness: nobody cares more about the creation of something new.<\/p>\n
So if you want to build something, take the tip. Next time, instead of sighing or snickering when an unduly detailed update on somebody\u2019s Child Countdown flits across the Internet, follow their lead. I mean, not Mozart and yoga, unless that\u2019s your thing. But read up. Take classes. Get with people who have already done what you\u2019re doing. And – this is the important bit – do all of that before you start.<\/p>\n
You won\u2019t know what\u2019s coming until it\u2019s come. Such is the nature of creation. Ask a parent, or an artist, or an entrepreneur. But ask them again and they\u2019ll tell you, preparing the ground and learning best practices from people who have been where you are is your best shot at coming through the unknown with a happy result.<\/p>\n
>When you want to build, give yourself a little Child Madness. It works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(OPINION EDITORIAL) Researching endlessly, vetting every method, and constantly refining isn’t just for moms with their first-born child, but also for business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337683,"featured_media":12358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[254],"tags":[683,1707,1706,1234],"class_list":["post-12381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","tag-business","tag-coddle","tag-first-born","tag-real-estate-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/09\/work-productivity.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337683"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12381"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18102,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12381\/revisions\/18102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}