That’s a picture of my son right there. He’s learning how to ride his skateboard. That’s him with his new termite skateboard and all of the protective gear a father could love.
The other week, (before he got all the gear you see in the picture) we were down in Scottsdale visiting the grandparents. I was in the middle of a 2 week stint being a single father of 3 while my wife was away.
Thank goodness for grandparents 
For some reason, my son didn’t bring his helmet to the park we stopped at that day. I wasn’t willing to let him ride without a helmet, so he happily offered to wear his sister’s helmet instead.
Here’s a picture: 
Now there were a bunch of slightly older kids playing out in the playground where my son was about to debut his last minute wardrobe choice and show up wearing a bright red Hello Kitty helmet.
I have to admit, at that point I went into parental protection mode.
I suggested something else to do.
You see, somewhere in the deep recesses of my being, I have all those experiences stored away where I was laughed at (or was afraid I was going to be laughed at) for doing something or being something different.
For me, showing up at a skateboard park wearing a Hello Kitty helmet would definitely fall into that category.
But the 5 year old in this picture… I don’t think he’s had any of those experiences yet. At least not enough of them to actually affect his behavior. Cause he spends his days being himself, however he wants to do that.
On this particular day, being himself meant wearing a Hello Kitty helmet.
He hasn’t come up against that force in society (at least I haven’t witnessed it) yet where points of difference make other people uncomfortable.
And where being different can get you laughed at or worse.
I wanted to protect my son from having his current reality shattered where he’s not even thinking about what others think of him. It just doesn’t register on his radar.
All he knows is that he loves to skateboard, so that’s what he does.
Now we can argue all day about whether that was a smart parenting choice. You could say I’m artificially shielding my son from reality. I’ve only been a parent for 7 years, so I’m hardly an expert.
Maybe you’d be right, except that I think it’s totally up to you to decide just how you want your reality to be.
You don’t have to accept what other people think reality is.
I’m doing my best to make sure my son knows he has a choice about that.
Do you want to be scared of what people will think or don’t you?
Do you want to let other’s opinions affect your behavior or not?
How many things in life or business would you do if you weren’t so afraid of what someone else would think, do or say?
When I think of myself showing up at the skateboard park wearing a Hello Kitty helmet at his age, I realize just how much room I have to grow.
And the more I grow, the more valuable I become to the world. In life AND in business.
It’s funny how you can spend so much of your childhood trying to fit in… then the rest of your life trying to break back out… only to remember who you really were in the first place.
I’m his dad, but it’s clear who was doing the teaching that day.
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