How Having A Baby Made Us Entrepreneurs

Looking from the outside in, some would say that 6 months after having your first child isn’t the ideal time to start a business. I used to agree.

Now however, I would pose a question in return, “Or could it actually be the ideal time, because after all, when is the ideal time to have a baby?”

Is it when you finish school?

Is it when you pay off all your debt?

Is it when you finally get your business up and running?

Is the ideal time when you buy a house, because surely you can’t have a baby while living in an apartment! (Dresser drawers are just the right size for an infant to sleep in, by the way.)

Is it when you have the money to buy an SUV because your old Honda Civic isn’t rated first for safety and you wouldn’t want to risk an accident?

I am here to put the thought into your head that now just might be the ideal time.

I’m not saying don’t wisely prepare, but I am saying there is no ideal time. We waited for 8 years for the ideal time. It never came.

Here are 5 ways in which having a baby catapulted us into a fuller life and also helped us become entrepreneurs.

1. We had a deadline. When you have to get something done by a certain time, you find ways to get it done. You just do. When we realized I was pregnant, it gave us a swift kick in the butt and got our lives moving.

2. We want to have a great marriage for our children. There is now extra motivation to work on our marriage issues. When it was just the two of us, it was easy to ignore issues because we had all the time in the world to resolve them. Therefore, we didn’t. Now, time is a valuable commodity and it is vital that we are on the same page with life and all the details therein.

3. Less time = more productivity. Somehow when you think your time is endless, you don’t tend to use it wisely. I find the less time I have, the more productive I am with the time that I do have.

In the past 10 months we have… had a baby, started and maintained a blog posting 7 days a week, and started a business. That’s more than we ever accomplished in the first 5 years of our marriage.

4. We couldn’t be so self-centered anymore. When we had Jude, there was someone else to take care of. It wasn’t just us anymore. Plus, it gave us the extra kick in the pants to create the life we wanted rather than just be blown in random directions by whichever wind happened to be blowing at the time.

5. No pain, no gain. Haha, literally with birthing! But the reality is you have to tear muscle tissue to build stronger muscles. I think the same is true in life. We have found the hardest times in our lives have propelled us into the most amazing times if we let ourselves learn from them.

Having kids only has to hold you back if you let it. Who says you can’t travel or start and scale a business or do many more things with a family? Kids are awesomely flexible and just need attentive, loving parents, not all the stuff.

We have found our lives to be richer, fuller, more meaningful, and more productive since the addition of Jude. And honestly, without him, we would probably still be sitting on the couch watching reruns of Seinfeld.

Question: If you have children, how soon did it change your life?