As my family gathered on Mother’s Day, I of course thought of my beloved mom who has been gone for a few years now. I remembered her for all of those wonderful traits that so many mothers possess, my wife included. But this year, I spent more time thinking about just how smart my mother was in business.
My dad was a plumber and ours was the epitome of a family business. We called ourselves, Anthony, The Family Plumber. The family was me, my older brother Ray, and my parents.
Everyone remembers my dad as a true success story. He was uneducated from a formal standpoint but had more street smarts than anyone I have ever met. He grew up during the Depression and understood what it meant to be poor. He built a true empire of a company and bottom line, he made a lot of money. But, I am very confident in saying that my mother deserves an equal, if not greater, amount of credit for his success.
Beyond handling the money, she was a great listener and an excellent judge of character. She was level-headed and balanced my father’s more high spirited temperament. She was the one who insisted that I work in the family business but also attend college and get a degree in business. She was the one who taught my father that there was more to life than just working and making money. She was the one who introduced him to the arts and travel. In essence, she understood the true balance between work and life.
As a business coach today, I teach my clients the disciplines of EMYTH founded by Business Guru Michael Gerber. So much of what I preach is about achieving business goals while maintaining a balanced lifestyle. It works, as thousands of people worldwide can attest.
So, yes, I am an EMYTH disciple, but now that I think about it, my beliefs were first instilled in me by my very first “coach” in life – my mom, Jacqueline Klein.
-Stephen
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