The Perfect Dad Paradox

A few weeks ago, I sat down with a friend—a bit old than me, successful, the kind of guy who built his career while coaching Little League.

He's as randomly esoteric as I am, which makes our conversations dangerous.

He said something that's been eating at me since:

"I designed my life to provide for my family and be maximally present. By every external measure, I succeeded. But here's the thing—I was at every game, every recital, every bedtime. My body was there. My mind? Racing through business at a million miles an hour - even if I was physically there. I have regrets about that."

This completely scrambles the narrative, doesn't it?

The dad who "never misses a game" is supposed to be the hero of the story. But what if showing up is only half the equation?

Here's where it gets worse:

The Addiction Swap

Breaking this pattern? Verrrrrry hard. Know why?

Watch the entrepreneurs who "get out." They sell the company, gain all this perspective, swear they'll be different now. Then what?

They go ALL IN on the next thing. Philanthropy. Fitness. That hobby? It gets the same obsessive energy the business used to get.

Same addiction. Different dealer.

They've just found a new excuse to not be present. A more socially acceptable way to keep their mind somewhere else.

The Real Work

The genuinely hard thing isn't building the business. It's not even stepping away from it.

It's learning to actually BE where you are.

To have your mind and body in the same zip code.

To resist the siren call of the next obsession.

I'm still fighting this battle daily.

Are you?

Yallah Habibi,

Jon

Alan Watts helps a lot

“The art of living... is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.” ― Alan Watts