On Working With Papa Bear
Cross Generational Teaching & Learning
It’s not often that a son gets the privilege of working with his father.
Lucky for me, I got that opportunity during the spring semester of my senior year of college. At first, as you might expect, I was worried that we’d be at each others throats— arguing and disagreeing all the time. While we’ve always been close, I never imagined working directly with him again (*we worked together when I was six for a couple of years at Concord Teacakes Bakery putting together the sections of the Boston Sunday Globe. I made $2/hour. He volunteered).
But this isn’t some fluffy personal story. I want to share what I’ve learned— and continue to learn everyday from this humbling experience. If you just want the lessons, scroll to the bottom.
We Teach • We Learn
He doesn’t know a lick about social media. I don’t know a lick about financial modeling. He said we should launch nationally (rightly). I thought we should start small and build incrementally, like most food companies. What you see here is humble, bidirectional multigenerational teaching and learning. What makes us work together effectively is that we’re both quick to admit ignorance and also quick to offer the insights that we do have.
Learn • I’ve learned a tremendous amount from my dad in the last two years working at 2 Degrees Food. He’s taught me how to interact and partner with people and organizations that I wouldn’t have even considered in the cards. He’s all about investing in your relationships and your network— they’re your lifeline— literally the keys to your professional and personal growth and future. He’s showed me patience, but also fierce persistence— the guy doesn’t give up.
Here’s an example of his persistence:
At the end of 2012 our company was in a tough place financially. We didn’t have enough retail locations to prove that the buy-one-give-one (think TOMS shoes for food) model was sustainable, and we ran out of cash, had to consolidate the team, and I had to take another job. Needless to say, things were looking bleak for 2 Degrees at the time. But not in his mind.
My father’s fire, passion and confidence in connections between people (and a maybe a healthy dose of luck) carried us through this rough patch. After a four minute segment on the NBC Today Show, we found our angel— and he really is an angel who believed in our mission, our model but mostly, my father. Because of my dad’s persistence and decision to hold on until the last moments, we’re still in business today— and growing rapidly.
This story of persistence and trust has been forever implanted on my brain. Now I push harder. I don’t give up so easily. I don’t take no for an answer. This has been instrumental in my own growth as man, but also in my work. He often says-
“Pretend you’re God. What would you do? Who would you reach out to? What are the possibilities?”
This mindset has taken our company far. Our snack bars are in Whole Foods, Barnes & Noble College, the offices of Google, Twitter, Intel, Microsoft, Airbnb, Zynga, AOL— the list goes on. This is all because we think big— we dream of the possibilities. If we had set our sights on building a snack bar business in California it would have been a slow uphill battle against the giants. Today we think globally— we’re a global food brand, not a small snack bar company and we intend to reinvent the food industry.
Teach• I like to think that I teach my dad too. While I don’t have years of experience working in law, politics, venture capital or nonprofits, I do know how to build a movement, and market to my generation (*HINT- we don’t like to be marketed to!). I know how to get people excited and tell a story about something that matters tremendously.
Teaching is fundamental to any relationship— whether with your parents or children, or with friends, colleagues or even strangers. Start to think about every interaction as a transaction of sorts. Whether you realize it or not, you’re taking and giving information to the other person. Some of these ideas will be new, and spawns new neural connections between existing ideas and mental frameworks, while other bits of these interactions will reaffirm preexisting notions.
I realize that everyone is a teacher. Whether that teacher is a homeless man I pass on the way to work that reminds me to be grateful for what I have, to a friendly or alternately bitter clerk at a grocery store, who either gleefully smiles at customers or the other, who sullenly scans bar codes with a placid face of discontentment— we learn and adapt from each one. Each interaction with another human gives us nuggets of wisdom—whether their ideas or actions are enviable or the exact opposite, everyone is both a teacher and a student. The challenge is letting yourself be humbled by, and learn from everyone— like this incredibly empathetic 1 year old baby, for example. That’s definitely worth a watch— you’ll see a wise, compassionate, loving old man (woman?) in that baby’s face.
But I digress…
The lessons learned through my time working with my pops are countless, and I can’t express my gratitude for this opportunity enough.
But what would this article be without a list of takeaways for you to gobble up, since many of you likely skipped down the to bottom…here’s your list:
Lessons Learned:
- You can reach anyone. Don’t block yourself before even attempting to get a message to the celebrity, author, entrepreneur or politician that you admire most. Find the connection to them— because I promise you it does exist. Your high school friend’s brother might just have been the personal assistant to said person. Do your research.
- Be open to learning from your parents. It’s hard at first. Really hard. We grow up learning how to sneak around, hide x from mom and dad and generally do the opposite of what they say. As many of you know, this all changes as we get older. Now is the time to learn the lessons and wisdom you never would accept before.
- Teach and share what you know. Wisdom is a hot commodity, and collectively we’re in short supply. When you learn amazing things, or connect with incredible people, share them! This is a sharing economy old folks can learn from us young pups in just as much as the reverse. Share and teach.
Thank you, pops. You inspire me everyday. I love you.
