What Inspires Me: My Children



“I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they possess inside.” –Whitney Houston

“Daddy,” my almost-ten year old daughter Charlotte told me last week after school, “I overheard a lunch lady today talking about her friend who has a gluten-free cookie business!”

I knew my daughter was telling me this because I’ve been coaching our cousin Julie, who’s actually launching a gluten-free cookie business herself. But I thought that my daughter, as others might, would think that this lunch lady’s friend’s business would pose a threat to our cousin’s fledgling gluten-free cookie business.

“So, what do you think of that,” I asked Charlotte.

My child looked up at me, wide-eyed and smiling, and said, “I think it’s great, because now we know there’s a market!”

I can’t tell you how happy and inspired that made me – as a dad, a businessperson, and a human being. It made me happy for so many reasons – (what an astute young businesswoman!) but most of all, it inspired me because it reminded me that our children, by and large, are filled with hope, not worry – optimism, not sadness, and excitement, not regret.

Here are the seven things that inspire me most about my children Charlotte and Kate. As I’ve written before, our greatest legacy is our children. I hope you too have children somewhere that inspire you each day:

Tolerance

In the United States, every week, it seems, there are headlines about hate crimes and bigotry. Gays and lesbians struggle for equal rights. Minorities face discrimination. Women aren’t paid equally to men. Republicans hate Democrats, and Democrats hate Republicans. And yet, nobody was born intolerant. Hatred and bigotry are clearly taught, and acquired over time. My children, and your children, are tolerant and loving by default. They see people as people, not as the labels that over time we adults ascribe to them. This inspires me.

Innocence

Also avoidable these days are headline about horrific crimes – in the last months alone, we’ve been witness to the Newtown shooting, the Boston bombing, and the Cleveland kidnapping. With every horrendous act we hear about, we lose a bit more innocence and hope and become a bit more jaded. With every time we are hurt personally, we further lose that innocence. When I was 12 years old, I was beat up, just walking down the street in Brooklyn, by a gang of older teenagers. That was the end of my innocence. But before that – I was the happiest, most care-free kid in New York. And when I look at my kids, I see that innocence in them, and wish for them to be able to hold on to it for as long as possible. This inspires me.

Optimism

I consider myself a really optimistic adult – even perhaps unrealistically optimistic at times. But I certainly have my days and my moments where my outlook on things isn’t so rosy. All adults have those moments. But children are naturally optimistic. Taken a kid to a birthday party lately? At the end of the hour-and-a-half, you’re likely anxious to get the heck out of there, while your child is enjoying every last minute – right up until she enthusiastically grabs that goodie bag. As adults, we’ve often come to fear, and even expect the worst in people. Children always expect the best in people until they’re taught otherwise. This inspires me.

Ambition

Ask my children what they want to be when they grow up, and they’ll give you a different answer each day: a ballerina, an astronaut, a business owner and a Princess are most common though. At a recent team meeting, I asked my team at Likeable what they had wanted to be when they were kids, and I got equally ambitious and divergent responses: a Major League baseball player, the President, and a rocket scientist, to name a few. Ask an adult what he’s looking forward to in his career, and you’re more likely to hear “the weekend” than any of those responses. My children believe they can be anything they want to be when they grow up, and this inspires me.

Honesty

Children are honest – at times brutally honest. Witness the time I asked Charlotte to tell her grandma what she thought of her tuna salad: “Grandma, I hate your tuna fish salad” or when I asked Kate how I looked in my new suit: “Daddy, I think you’re gaining weight” – but nonetheless, they are honest. Somewhere on the way to adulthood, we get filters, and begin to not tell the whole truth. But as I recently wrote, honesty is always the best policy – and in the long run, it’s actually easier. Children are honest, and this inspires me.

Energy

When I get home at 6:30 PM after a long day’s work, I want to relax on the couch, and enjoy some quiet time. But my children, after a long day at school, piano lessons and dance class still tell me: “Daddy, let’s jump on the trampoline!” Adults drink coffee, work out, take 5 hour energy pills and have all sorts of rituals and routines in order to keep their energy up. Children, though, have a natural energy and desire to be active. It’s infectious, and it inspires me.

Courage

As we all get older, we experience so many things that teach us to be afraid – loss, rejection, failure, and exposure to acts of evil. It gets more and more difficult to be courageous in the face of that fear. Children, on the other hand, God-willing, haven’t experienced those things yet. And if encouraged, they can most certainly be unafraid, or at least courageous enough to take smart risks in the face of that fear. I’m proud that my wife and I are raising our children to be courageous and entrepreneurial – so that they are thinking about problems and how they can try to solve them.

When I look into the faces of my two beautiful girls, Charlotte and Kate, I’m inspired by their tolerance, innocence, optimism, ambition, honesty, energy and courage. On this Mother’s Day and beyond, I hope you too can get some inspiration from your children, nieces, nephews, and students. Whitney said it best: The children are most definitely our future.

This post was written as part of a series in conjunction with LinkedIn's 10th anniversary.

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Now it's your turn. Are you inspired by your children, or any children around you? What have children said or done to inspire you most? And which of these traits in children resonates most with you as inspiration? Please share in the Comments section below, and please share this post in honor of the mothers and fathers out there raising children to inspire us all.

Dave Kerpen is the founder and CEO of Likeable Local. He is also the co-founder and Chairman of Likeable Media, and the New York Times-bestselling author of Likeable Social Media and Likeable Business, and the new collection, Likeable Leadership. To read more from Dave on LinkedIn, please click the FOLLOW button above or below.

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Aleksandra Petersone

Lead Business Analyst && Coach

7y

Very inspiring article, Dave, thank you. My child inspires a lot me as well. For me lately it was the fact, that children are not giving up! They keep going even if it's difficult for them. :) I wrote about it in my article: http://wifeinfocus.com/get-inspiration-children/

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Elizabeth Collins

Litigation Legal Assistant

10y

Thank you for sharing a topic that we as parents and grandparents can all embrace. My daughter and 3 year-old granddaughter offer compassion, honesty, truth, and unconditional love to me. For this I am so very grateful.

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Tamer Karam, PhD

Advisor | Lecturer | Speaker

10y

Thank you Dave. You have made my day and the way to restore all what you have mentioned above. We should transform back to the old days of our childhood where inspiration was the DNA that fuel our perception for life and us.

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Dr.Sunder Srinivasan

Lokah: samasthah: sukhino bhavantu

10y

Very good article. It teaches us not to live our lives through our children, but allow them to live their lives in full freedom and love, and in turn the blossoming of the child teaches us , we learn from that. This article i dedicate to my sweet Julia, the pink giggle.

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Ayman Al Khaled

General Manager - Trading Division at Qatar Building Company “Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer."

10y

Nice artical Dave. I love this part "it inspired me because it reminded me that our children, by and large, are filled with hope, not worry – optimism, not sadness, and excitement, not regret."

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