For years my gifts to them have been time and experiences together, though the 14 year old wasn’t too sure about the height of the chairlift 😉
Inspired yesterday by my friend Ben Brabyn (see or listen to the podcast of his guest appearance on WhatComesNextLive here), this tweet really got me thinking, so will story-tell and share a little, and while you read, please consider your answer to this question.
My first thought was around being a father to my three sons. In retrospect, I was so focussed for the first 15 or so years of parenthood on work and building for the family, that I was not as present as I could have been (literally as well as in terms of being fully present when home), such that when I woke up to that, I changed my work practices then, ultimately, my career so as to have more time with them.
So, my initial answer to Ben was to repeat an old parable:
SON: “Daddy, how much do you make an hour?”
DAD: “Why do you ask?”
SON: “I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?”
DAD: “If you must know, I make £100 an hour.” SON: “Oh!” (With his head down).
SON: “Daddy, may I please borrow £100?”
The whole idea of that almost brings me to tears, and perhaps as I came close to that reality at times.
Further on in the twitter thread, Ben asked:
Thanks Tom – I agree that time is a wonderful gift, but what is the best alternative? For example for a godfather who lives far away, or for any of us seeking to provide a brief but high impact nudge?
Given that he and I are often talking about entrepreneurship and innovation, this then led me to say:
Got it. I love the https://10xchallenge.org.uk Tenner idea that @OliBarrett introduced me to, so one idea for curious teens is give them a tenner and help them work out what they can do with it…nothing like mentoring those you love.
I wrote about the tenner challenge in: “Creative Constraints: Tenner and 10x” and love the idea of giving teenagers a start in the idea of learning business, allied to some caring and curious mentoring along the way. Not teenagers, but I have a first mentoring meeting this week with two young men who run a mobile car wash, who I talked about recently in: “I am energized by entrepreneurs“.
So, what gift would you give a 14-year-old?