#06 The Future Start Now
Being a parent makes us think and rethink. Evaluate our self, biases, past, and the future.
Certain things need to be maintained, and there other things that need to change. We tend to think about the future from the perspective of our past. Is it still relevant? Technology changed everything about how we do what we do. But 'the why' supposed to be the same.
What kind of education, environment, and culture is the example that we want to give for our kids? For Marcus. Kids are copying what we do, more than what we say. Education begins at home. We do not have to wait until he goes to school. The future starts now!
We cannot control the output of our son. What kind of person he would be in the future. What we can do is give him so many inputs that we want him to learn and copy. "Your input determines your output."
These principles also can be applied to organizations. Not just kids who are good copier, all of the human beings are good copier, up until adulthood. Especially in era information like now, people easily copy someone's methods, technique, or value.
The adult doesn't use the term that they are copying, but the fact is people unconsciously copying from each other. I can quickly cook some menu that I never cook because I watching the Youtube from Gordon Ramsey or Jamie Oliver. I learn how to cook Asian food from dailycookingquest.com. I copying their methods, and the taste most likely is excellent. That's also why people learn in conferences or masterclasses, and they try to apply it in their lives. Because of that, let's be more mindful and be intentional about our input in family-wise, business-organizational wise.
We cannot control the output of our organization or business. What we can control is our input. We equipped our team so many lessons that we want them to learn and copy. People - our team is copying what we do, more than what we say. The future starts now!
Learning process starts from the parents
We start with what we have our my hands, which is by being a role model for him. Simple to say but hard to do. Hopefully, he will copy and learn to do the same. He already began to copy how we do things, like how to wear shoes, how we eat, and how we cook in the kitchen.
All the values, mindset, skills that we want him to learn; Everything has to start from us—we as a parent doing it and be the living example. It's a bold commitment, but doable. In the journey, we will make a lot of mistakes, make trial & error, and learn from it. Parenting makes us humble to always learn and upgrading ourselves first to be better.
THINGS TO BE MAINTAINED
Question:
If we want him to be a leader, what kind of leader should he lookup? We know every human is a leader. But, what type of leader? A leader who put themselves as the center, or a leader who builds another leader?
The influence begins at home.
We can't force him to be a particular leader. He will have his own style, but we can influence him by being the example of the leader that we want him to learn. How to treat a woman - his future wife? He can learn from how the way his father treats his mom. We want him to learn to empower people, to trust people, groom people, and let them flourish, even more than him. He can watch and learn how to do it from his parents.
Why I choose that kind of leadership style? Because of all the accomplishments and experiences that I had, it just because I have numerous mentors and leaders who give me trust and chances. They trust me, way more than I believe myself. In other words, it's a grace of God. Not by my strength or because I was proven doing something great. Far from it.
Because I know how it feels to be trusted and given a chance, I'll do my best even more. That's also why I try to pay my mentor's goodness by giving the same trust and opportunity to other people. We want Marcus also learn to do so. Paying forward people's kindness.
This is why we love Jesus' leadership style. He accepts people first, without they have to change a bit. Jesus invested his time with His disciples to live a life together with them. They are equipped and empowered. Jesus only gives them the "why" - 'the mission,' but the 'what' and the 'how' is up to them.
We need to surround him by people with the same value of life - By intentionally making a specific circumstance by design. Once again, kids are a good copy machine.
Be a role model doesn't mean we have to be perfect. Not at all. I'm perfectly not perfect. I make a mistake, wrong decisions, things that I don't proud of, I am still a human. I want him to learn to be real. It is okay to make mistakes and make wrong decisions and things that sometimes we could not proud of them. No matter what, our love is still the same and big enough for him.
THINGS TO BE CHANGE
What kind of culture and education that I want him to learn? I grow up with memorizing methods. Nowadays? You don't need to memorize much, almost everything is in your finger or simply just ask Siri. Information becomes a commodity. We need more critical thinking more than just to remember a thing. So, we are not easily misled by false information and teaching. We need to update our education system. Upgrade all the out-dated belief systems.
For the last 125 years, our education system built to make an obedient army - Sir Ken Rogers, who said this, not me. They want to build an army of people who are competent in the following order. Nothing wrong with the following order, but Sir Ken Rogers has opened my eyes to these educational biases. The education system created based on the industrial era - People who work in the factory. That's why they want people to behave the same and have a similar quality. That's why our school looks like a factory. Start with a bell, end by national test.
AI - Artificial Intelligence - Robotic era is coming sooner than we thought. Only people in the creative-thinking area will be survived. How do we prepare them for the future? There are certain things that our kids need to learn to survive in this century. To let them be creative - innovator people - not just following an order like a robot. We need to teach them about curiosity, dare to ask the question, learn to collaborate, dare to make the change, and use their strength to help people be better.
SIMPLE LITTLE THINGS
Every little thing, all the intentionality is matters. Start with what we have. We can only teach and give with what we have. We can always teach our kids - our team with simplicity and from what is in our surroundings. The learning process starts with us as a parent - as a leader. So, let's learn together for a better future for our kids - our organization. The future begins now. Stop looking around, start with what we have. Preparing our next generations from now. Parenting is leadership. Leadership is parenting.
About the writer