Towards financial literacy

 On thing that pressed upon me time and again is that both my parents (God rest their souls -- Bless and keep them) while great parents were not very good with finances, and had little common sense about business. Both were technically geniuses. And both knew how to save for retirement. But apart from that they were not really well versed on the mindset of making money as an entrepreneur. I honestly do not see how they could have been otherwise: most of their lives were spent raising their kids. 

But even so I now realize that I am making a lot of their same mistakes. And that's also what has prompted me to start my own business, but also to do it on a shoestring, and to learn how to financially be more realistic about how business works. 

I think the problem is that it is easy to see life in the abstract and philosophical manner: to read articles about people who "made it" in the business world and to dole out ideas and/or excuses why / why not one is a success / failure. 

I think my dad was a lot like this. Extremely smart in many ways, but not about business. He was an abstract thinking. And since his passing a few years ago, I realize that he and I are a lot alike. I am looking myself in the mirror and seeing his face more often than not, and I am finding my manners shaping into his. 

But when I look at our young son across the breakfast table every morning, I realize I can not make the same choices my dad did. Life is just getting harder and harder, and the cost of living is just ridiculous. I made really good money right now. And perhaps twenty years ago I would not have to think about starting my own company, but twenty years ago is a far cry different from now.  And if I am going to give our son a fighting chance in this world, I need to be the one to clear the path. 

I need to be more. I need to work towards becoming more financially literate. 

I need to cultivate the business mindset that will get me to where I need to go. 

This will take time, I realize this. This is not an overnight undertaking. I need to make this into a routine. 

As I tell our son over and over again, "Day by day, in every way, bit by bit, better and better." I tell him to repeat that because as long as he (we) are always doing a bit better each day we will eventually get to where we want to go. 

So I am working on it. 

I recently bought a couple of books on Audible.com. I like audible. I do not have much time to read, so this helps. The books are Mindset, and the E-Myth Revisited. 

I heard both are fantastic so I guess we will see whether they will help me prop up the business.