Your Happy Hour - Episode 29: Top 10 On Growing Up With Entrepreneurs

Episode Date: June 21, 2024

Happy Friday everyone! Tune in to episode 29 and let’s kickoff June with: Top 10 on Growing up with EntrepreneursIn this episode, we chat with our special guests - our parents - as we celebrate Father’s Day and uncover what it has been like to grow up with entrepreneurial fathers: their motivations for becoming entrepreneurs, as well as the challenges they faced along the way. We also get a little peek into the thoughts from the women behind these men and what it means to be the partner of an entrepreneur. We’ll be here - every Friday - celebrating with you!Connect with us @ friday-feels.co▶ Podcast Chapters00:00 Welcome to the Parents!2:11 The Journey of Being an Entrepreneur7:19 The Balancing Act of Creativity, Structure and Motivation10:54 Wearing Multiple Hats: Being the Finder, the Miner and the Grinder12:26 Sacrifices of Being a Working Father and Entrepreneur 16:40 The Best Gifts in Life21:20 The Beauty of Partners to Identify Blind Spots24:02 Belief in Yourself vs Lack of Experience 27:38 A Partners Point of View: Walking Alongside Entrepreneurs 37:53 Moments to Laugh At43:43 Best Advice for Entrepreneurial Couples 47:40 Final Thoughts, Next week and Farewell

Happy Friday beautiful people and welcome to your first sip of the weekend. We're celebrating all you working professionals out there. You are doing your crazy craft, embracing the beauty of being human and connecting authentically. And we're your host, Saj and Nicole. We're living and working around the world and we're holding space for you and keeping it raw and real as we share fresh content with you every week. keeping it raw and real as we share fresh content with you every week. So follow us on LinkedIn at Friday Feels and Instagram at These Friday Feels for updates throughout the week. In our last episode, we spoke about the top 10 on being young, wild and working. And today we celebrate the men. Happy Father's Day to all the men out there, whether you're a father to your goldfish,

say to all the men out there, whether you're a father to your goldfish, Labrador, rosebush, and plant collection, or a human child, we want to say thank you for who you are as humans in our lives. And we're both very lucky to still have our dads around. And so we thought today, let's continue our theme of top 10s with a very special chat. And we're talking the top 10 on growing up with entrepreneurs. We both come from entrepreneurial households and so to help us unpack today's topic we're bringing in four very special guests, our entrepreneurial fathers as well as the woman behind the men. So a very big welcome to my mom and dad Pieter and Anita and to Saj's mom and dad Sandra and Yagi. Thank you so much for all the support you've given us along this journey and it's just super special for us to have you here today. Thank you for the invite. Thanks a lot,

nice to meet you. It's a pleasure to be here. As always. So should we dive in, Saj? What questions do we have for the main today? So for today, we thought it would be exciting to hear from the entrepreneurs themselves. And so we're going to do top 10 questions. So the first one we have is, what was the moment you know you had to go at it entrepreneurship style? As I said earlier from birth I guess and I grew up with my dad seeing what he's done and I'm from a foreign country Trinidad and Tobago and growing up I left Trinidad

when I was seven years old and I was so excited. We went to Canada and you saw the opportunity. We see the apple, the grapes, the snow and everything. And from being in the, let's say, third world country, the opportunity there. So as I grew up older, when I was 17, I went to Canada and lived for a few years. And I saw the opportunity there. I was working, I used to do auto electrical, then a trailer mechanic, then left, went back to Trinidad. My mom was sick.

I sent all my equipment and everything, and after like two months or so, three months, I met my wife. She came on vacation, and I decided three weeks, if I want to get married or not, so I met my wife. She came on vacation and I decided three weeks if I want to get married or not. So I took the opportunity. Then after that, we got an opportunity to come to America and her dad was into buying buildings and housing or whatever. And I think it was easier in this country to set up business and be an entrepreneur that with the experience I had back home and in Canada, in the real estate. So it was an easier life here acquiring properties

and doing business than the other countries that I came from, Canada and Trinidad. So I had that in mind and then we started moving up. And I remember one day, Saj was in school, and I had an escalator, a platinum escalator, and she's like the last day of school. So she's like, Dad, I paid $100,000 for that car loaded. She's like, Dad, I want to use the car to go to for that car loaded she's like dad i want to use

the car to go to school i said well you're crazy i said anyway ask your mother and if your mother said you can go with it you can go with it she asked her mom the mom's like what's the big deal i said you surprised me i never thought you would tell her yes to do it so i had to let her go to school in the car so you know she was spoiled in the sense that whatever we could acquire and give her i think it was interesting when we were talking about it is like you never questioned having a job you're like oh how do i build a business in canada how do i build a business in trinidad how do i build a business in america there just wasn't a question of oh i should go to university i should, you went to different trade schools.

But it was always like, how do I build a business here? It's like it didn't even enter your mind. And also, I was telling her many years ago, one of my friend's daughters interviewed me also. And she was asking me the same thing. And I said, if I were to do it over again, at that time, we were in the X-ray field building trailers and whatever. And we did the first trailer that went, the first trailer in the world that went to Alaska. And then I said, well, I'll be in the X-ray field

because I saw the money and the opportunity. That's a little background on entrepreneurship. What about you, Piet? Look, mine is probably a bit different. You probably, I don't know if Nicole explained to you, I'm an engineer, electrical. Mine was never, I never actually had a thought. To me, life is like animals migrating summer to winter and you learn as you go along.

And I was just watching always in my blood that perhaps I was trying to do my own thing and picking up as I go along. So there was never a day or a specific moment of I'm going to go on my own. It was always, as I say, you're migrating with all the animals and you're part of the voyage and you learn and you pick up as you go along and then one day you realize, oh, perhaps I can do it. And, yeah, that's how I started my companies. Yeah, hope it makes sense.

I remember a conversation we had when I was still working in corporate and I was always kind of wanting to do my own thing and I remember asking you dad like when do you know when do you know it's the right time and you kind of just said to me like you'll know there's no other way it's just the way it is you have to now do it um you know and so that always stuck with me I guess getting laid off in America was kind of like a very clear indication like now's the time but yeah that always stuck with me I think you you always obviously experience that like it's it's it's the right moment in time to do that now yeah I think uh it's definitely a very

interesting journey so the second question is what kept you attracted to wanting to be an entrepreneur and what kept you motivated? So I think the main thing is the moment you make that decision that you're going to go entrepreneurial, there's a passion that kicks in and a lot of creative energy flows into you. And then you start realizing that you need other support structures and perhaps additional studies. What in my case, I did a master's in business leadership because I realized engineers need, you know,

there's a day that you realize there's another side of the brain as well. And, yeah, and you have to get to know that. So it's part of the whole journey that goes with it. And what do you feel kept you motivated along the way? Look, as I said, it's the passion and that concept of to make this happen. Her dad also said, I, when you start with it, and the trick is this action and make it happen all the way. And it keeps you going, and you have to look around.

And it's an unknown area. And entrepreneurial phases in the beginning is so unknown. And I think that unknown is making you throwing a lot of positive energy towards it and says, but somewhere, somewhere in this universe, a couple of projects I have to pick up. And that keeps you going and that supports you. And obviously you need structures and mothers

and children around you that makes it happen. I hope it makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. What about you? What kept you attracted to wanting to be an entrepreneur? No, as you said, you have a passion. I was always very enthusiastic in doing, especially in the mortgage business, the housing business, that you could move forward then we get

started with the notes and stuff and all day we will talk about this and um nobody intimidated me i would speak to anybody you know because i've been around nuclear physicists this one that one everything in my field engineers and everything and i could work with them. So I think in the banking business, I wish I had moved forward more and learned that earlier because the fact that we had at the time, we had inventory for housing and stuff, but you really needed a partner

to back you up, to move forward. And we did have a few people back and forth, but you couldn't trust them. They just went behind your back and circumvent you. So with that in mind now, i wanted to have my own bank so this way we could fund everything ourselves in-house and do move forward so i always liked the real estate and i think i am up to now i have a passion for that with that and building and stuff so i enjoy that so it's mainly based in passion no not, reality, how many houses and stuff we had.

You know, so, you know, but it's back. Nobody know how the market is. That's the thing about real estate. Understanding it and having it. You need a financial backing to acquire stuff when it comes, because good or bad, you have that funding from somebody as a partner. So I guess that kind of brings us into our next question, which is in regards to your journey,

would you have done anything differently? Not really, no. I enjoy what I do. Okay, short and sweet. What about you? Is it my turn? Yeah. Yes.

I think, as your dad said, you know, the passion. If the entrepreneurial phase in the beginning is the typical finder, miner, and grinder, and you, all of that, and I think your dad just mentioned that. So you have to understand finance and marketing, all of these things. So you are the finder and the minder and the grinder of trying to make it happen. Eventually, if you grow into another phase, obviously you appoint other people to assist you, but that's what keeps you going.

Would you change anything that you've done along the way or is there anything that you would go back and do differently well are you asking me if i will study engineering again i will probably change that in my next life. No, I won't. I won't. That was part of this journey, and I respected everything that went into it. And I've got gratitude in what way we arrived with it. No, thank you. I think that's a very wise answer and then something

that a lot of people talk about is kind of the sacrifices that you have to make to lead an entrepreneurial life can you give us a little behind the scenes you know how was it what were some of those sacrifices that you had to make to lead an entrepreneurial life specifically no i think what happened is you had the times you always have to be working early morning late evenings and not all the time you could make that sacrifice to plan ahead hey we're gonna go to a trip or cruise or whatever i'm like i can't plan that because I don't have the time for that. You know, so I think that was one of the biggest reasons, being an entrepreneur and wondering when you want to move forward because you have to get paid.

You have workers. You have to hold everybody together. That's one of the biggest things you have to make sacrifices with, to be around the kids and stuff. to be around the kids and stuff. No, I think, as I said, you know, you are a multi-skilled personality in the beginning and you have to do marketing. So Saturday and Sunday you take people out to sport functions.

At night you have to entertain them. In the meantime you have to build a company. You have to create and get the work out, et have to build a company. You have to create and get the work out, etc. And it all sits with you. And eventually to catch up, you spend a lot of hours in the

office, Saturdays, Sundays, etc. And if you look back it's a serious sacrifice of you sort of forgot how to smell the roses. You didn't have time for it. And that's the unfortunate thing about sacrificing. But that's part of the game.

I mean, you made a decision to become an entrepreneur, and that is the price you pay. Interestingly, just a quick story from my side. And I remember as a child being like three, four years old, maybe four or five. And well, both my parents are entrepreneurs. And so I actually have really fond memories of dragging my mattress down from my room, you know,

and going and sleeping in the office where my mom's working on all her projects and helping my dad and you know I remember you guys were designing your logos and coming up with all these things and you know it was it was actually such a beautiful time for me even though it probably felt like such big sacrifices to you I think it inspired me so much to see like what you can build in in the world you know so I have fond memories even though it might feel to you like it was lack of sleep for you I'm sorry and I appreciate it yeah and I also think it's nice too when you have a partner because like I remember in chorus or

like I would always be in clubs and my mom would always show up and then dad would show up but like he had to like go shower change and then come and then he might have been late but he would always show up and so we just kind of knew that was the way things were it's like okay well mom will be there all the time and then or my aunt or my siblings and dad will be there but I don't know if he'll be there the whole time like but it was just that you made the effort, right? And I think now that when we're doing it, I can see myself doing things like that. I've moved anniversaries. I've moved birthdays.

I've moved this day. Like, oh, well, I need to travel. I have to do this. Can we celebrate another day? And it's hard to kind of juggle that even without having kids. it's hard to kind of juggle that even without having kids so I have no idea how people do this with having like a personal life I guess it's just about balance right and you deciding like quality time is quality time even if it's on the wrong day or if it's at the wrong time that everybody else isn't celebrating and that is you know we'd always go to friendlies we'd always

go to these other places to celebrate and those are the things that that is you know we'd always go to friendlies we'd always go to these other places to celebrate and those are the things that you remember you know you don't remember that you know they were probably hustling to beat traffic to come at a certain time etc well you know what up to now they ask what you would like for christmas birthdays anniversary i said you know what the best thing is if you guys come and you're in the bed and we all together sit down there or lie down there or talking that's the best gift you can get yeah that's true bliss and peace together Just simple.

Bliss and peace together. Well, I mean, it's like a common thing too is that most people remember experiences. They don't actually remember things. So over time, it's like that's what you build up and you remember. And a lot of people, like, wonder why I'm super close to my family. I'm like, well, because, like, we're always around no matter what, you know. So that's something that you build and you know what you guys are very fortunate to have your dad around or your parents around because when i was 11 years old my dad passed away and whatever i learned from him from then

to now i keep that respect And everybody respected him so much. They were afraid of him because he was very strict. And religiously, I follow whatever he had taught me also. So that's one thing you guys are fortunate to have. I think that brings us to what is the best thing about being a dad, do you think? Just you guys being around. I enjoy that.

I enjoy you guys being around. And then, like my son, I tell him, he would come and lie down on the bed. He would hug up on him. I said, I would give you everything I have. You will get everything I have because you could be there. That is worth more than any other gift or anything. What about you, Piers? So just to make sure the question was,

what is it like to be a dad? Is that correct? That's the base thing of being a dad. Yeah. We only want the good things here. A cheerleader. the good things here. A cheerleader.

It's virtually, I mean, you know, the way I look at life is that the children are virtually just alone to us and they're busy with their own journeys and I can only be the cheerleader and grateful for what I see

and how they develop. You've got no really impact on it. I think the other thing is I can remember, you know, we live in Africa, so just a bit of a story, and Nicole will know what I'm going to say. I enjoy photographic, wildlife photographics. I took her a couple of times with me on these photographic trips. And she sat next to me with these 600-millimeter lenses, serious bazooka lenses, and the baboons were playing

and making somersaults and stuff, and that laugh, that laugh, if I can turn it, that is to be a dad. That's all I can say. Those monkeys are crazy. It's really difficult not to laugh at them. I said that's a high bar your dad is setting. To get a good laugh out of Nicole, you got to go take her to the monkeys. I have to just say that I have a very wild imagination, but my dad did take full advantage of that over the years and told me that I

was born a monkey and that they cut my tail off and kept it in the cupboard. And I believed him. I have a long relationship with monkeys. Anyway. Oh man. Yeah. Well, we're so grateful for you guys being our dads.

So thank you for being here today. And may we have lots more, many lives together. Yeah, I think as Dad says, I think we're grateful that we, as dads, are still around and be able to share today, for example, with everybody. dads are still around and be able to share today, for example, with everybody. And there's a lot of other children that lost their dad at 11. It's always a miss. So I think everybody around this table is very fortunate.

Absolutely. On that topic of life experience, I'm quite curious, what do you feel has been something that you have felt like you kind of lacked experience in, you know, that's made an impact on your journey as an entrepreneur, something that you had to kind of go find experience in or maybe find a mentor or, you know, what was something like that that came up for you along your journey? Look, if you're in the technical world or the engineering world, Friday you don't know the subject, but Monday you know.

So that's just part of the game. You can't know everything, but the trick is to go, where do you get a mentor over the weekend and go and find out so that Monday, Tuesday, if you sit in front of a client, you know what you're talking about. At least the subject is, you've got to demonstrate knowledge of the subject. And that is just part of life. And it goes for everything around the table.

So, you know, everybody needs a mentor at several levels, at several times in your life as an entrepreneur. In the beginning, you need, you know, I think what I found is that some people like to count all the leaves before they tell you there's a couple of trees around. And then you get other people tell you there's a couple of trees around. And then you get other people that just look at a couple of trees and say, the leaf doesn't matter. I'm guessing that's about the amount of leaves I'm talking about.

So what I'm just saying, there's a lot of people doing detail and there's a lot of people that can actually entrepreneurial forward on just an instinct of, you know, this is the right thing to do. You don't have to go and count all these trees to eventually get to a product. And in the beginning, you are everything. But I think the understanding is that you will have to find strategic partners that fill that gap in because I've got a blind spot. I will never become a pilot.

I can't see all that meters. There's just too many. I won't be able to see them. I can't see detail. It's not into me. So I needed a lot of partners and mentors that carry me in my blind spots in terms of theatre. Yeah, and I think that's part of life to understand that that will make you a full, complete entrepreneurial person. That's my story.

Great. How about you you Yagi you know what I remember when we were doing the stuff in the extra field I had a t-shirt and this guy was amazed so he's like what is that it had a t-shirt says

if you cannot dazzle them with brilliance baffle them with bullshit so so and I was sitting there dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit. And I would sit there with them and among everybody, and then as your dad said, you have to figure out from today to the next few days what will happen. But I always had the confidence in myself I would achieve what we came there to do.

So it was like from Connecticut to Long Island, I go back and forth and I put on a t-shirt purposely among those guys. So I think even, you know, because I know what you're talking about, the lack of formal experience,

you kind of made up for it with confidence that you could figure it out even though you're around people with more formal experience, you still have common sense. So you can kind of navigate that world without feeling like you don't understand what they're kind of saying. Well, the boss, he had his degree in meteorology. So one day he came to the back and he's like, yeah, you've got to weld that.

I said, weld what? Yeah, you can weld it. I said, weld what? How could you weld aluminum and steel together and you have your degree use a nuclear physicist i'm like these guys are a bunch of idiots you know what i mean but they respect me they respect me in every field we went to all the government facilities uh all these places to go and do it whatever it has to be that you take charge. But how do you learn something like that? Did you have a book?

I went to school for that. So you feel like your trade school taught you more than these guys? Yeah, with all these big degrees you guys have. He has his engineer. He's one of the biggest in the world for x-ray. He has his engineers. He has everybody from Connecticut, blah, blah, blah. And I was telling Saj yesterday, they were doing a room for the x-ray,

the tanks, and then they went to desert stuff in Pennsylvania. So we went in there to build a room or whatever, and I'm in Connecticut. I said, you guys are building this room. You have to put supports and all this thing in these tracks, right? He's like, oh, you know what? We're all this thing in these tracks right he's like oh you know what we're doing this for 35 years i said but if you were jackass for 35 years it still wouldn't change excuse my language you know i mean i tell the engineer so anyway we went connecticut we installed a room we installed a manipulator and after two days the wheel cracked and the deflection they had. So that was Thursday.

Saturday morning, they came with two 35-foot Anglian with all the gussets welded, exactly what I told them while I was in Connecticut. So sometimes, you know, you have to listen to people's experience. Sometimes all the experience they have, it it'll make a difference for somebody else who could own the field and who could fabricate their self not only drawing so with that experience with that i think was good enough to be among them that's awesome i love that story. But also one thing in business that I told them, I said, if you have a passion for your workers, I said, I will always do business,

but I will never be a businessman because a businessman has no heart. awesome so we've heard from the entrepreneurial men and we're very grateful we can also both say that we have our moms with us still today and um so we have some questions for you, seeing as though you've walked this journey with our dads. And our first question is, what attracted you to them and what kept you attracted? Do you want me to leave the room? If it's not that bad. well shall i go sandra please do okay um so i would think that peter's always had a solidness to him. I like that.

I like when I see something that's solid and I see what I see is what I get. And I think that kind of thing is very attractive for me. And I think what over the years, obviously, there's a lot of respect and integrity and all all of those kind of things share a sense of humor can love about a lot of things and then at the same time we share a lot of other things things like our taste in music and the love for music things like our taste or our love for photography and doing photography together and being out in the nature and and sharing those kind of moments those nature has got a way of showing you exactly who you are and you show up real and authentic in nature. You cannot be other. So that kind of thing. And then we do sing from the same hymn book when it comes to spiritual ways

and means of why are we here, what is life's journey like, and what are the important things in life that we must try and accomplish. And then most importantly, we share a beautiful daughter. So there's no way that it cannot happen. It's pretty much similar, aside from nature. We have a lot of the same characteristics in mind. I admire his perspective on life, his outlook, his strength. And I thought it's someone that I could build a nice life with

and gave me a whole new perspective on family, which I'm very grateful. I have a beautiful family I'm totally grateful for. And the journey, it hasn't always been easy, but it's certainly worthwhile. I've enjoyed it more than I can say. I'll definitely do it again with a few minor tweaks. But for the most part, I'm very, very blessed. That's amazing. Well, I think it makes our hearts pretty warm to hear these things, you know, as children. And I guess we haven't really embarked on that space yet in our lives,

both of us. But, yeah, just beautiful inspiration for us as we build our businesses our families um so yeah I guess our second question to follow on that is what do you feel has been the most insightful thing that you've learned walking alongside them as entrepreneurs Well, I think it's not an easy road, you know, but you trust who you're with and I believe in him. And he believes in our family and I know he'll do what needs to be done. Personality aside, it's hard because, like he said, he has the vision, but his judgment isn't always the best, but we feel our way through. And the outcome, I'm here through thick and thin.

He has great morals. That was a good start. And like I said, he was very strong, motivated, and I admired his strength because he didn't have a lot of leadership, but it was all in him. He was very brave. So I thought those were good characteristics. And he's a good person. I would like my children to have a lot of those characteristics, minus a few little tweaks. But, you know, a good foundation for a great life. And that's what helped kept me at the gate. What would you say, Anita,

has been some of the most insightful things you've learned to walk alongside them as entrepreneurs? Well, I appeared just previously, he said he's not a detailed person. Probably that's why he married me, because I am a detailed person. Probably that's why he married me because I am a detailed person. So I can see the devil in the detail. Leave me for a while and I'll tell you where all the devils in the detail are, you know. But what I learned from him is something I needed. Because he's more a person that looks at the total picture or the more holistic picture, I learned from him to look at that side of things. And for me, that has been given me quite a potent package, being able to see the detail but also see the full picture.

So I'm now talking more from an entrepreneurial point of view. I have definitely gained a lot through that, being able to see, to be both models. So yeah, definitely that. And what would you say in times of instability? You know, obviously as an entrepreneur, things are sometimes good, things are sometimes bad. There's a lot of market forces that have to do with your journey

that not everyone knows where things are headed. You know, how do you deal with those highs and lows? The highs and the lows, yeah. The highs and the lows, I think, you know, sometimes they flow into each other in a way that after a while, especially when a man is an entrepreneur, you don't literally look for the highs and you didn't literally look for the lows. It's all part of the same package what what Peter said he's got a way of saying he referred to something which I would call an entrepreneurial bandwidth and I think the entrepreneur the woman that finds herself in a marriage with an entrepreneur, I have found that bandwidth is pretty wide. It's pretty big.

There's a lot of gray in that bandwidth, and you have to live with it. And the highs and the lows are somewhere in between. And after a while, you just naturally flow with it. That's nice you say that. How about you, Sandra? Well, we committed to one another. I didn't always know how it would end, but we always believed in each other.

And I try to have his back. And I know he has mine. Based on his beliefs, I know his strength. So I try to hold on to that. And we have a family, so we muddle through whatever and we weather it out. We're in it for the long haul. And, you know, I put faith in God, pray, we manage, we really do. We had so many highs, had a couple lows, but it does help to believe that we can make it through and

I think we try to have each other's back. So his strength, my weakness, my weakness, his strength, we kind of intertwine. And we hope and pray we're all well, so we can't really complain. We'll muddle through the rest. Thank God we're still here. And we're still smiling. So, you know, it's not always

easy. But, um, like I said, we're, through thick and thin, we're very blessed. So you hold on to that. Not a lot of people can say that. So, and then of course you have your children, our wonderful You hold on to that. Not a lot of people can say that.

And then, of course, you have your children, our wonderful icing on the cake. I'm very, very, very proud of my kids. They're wonderful human beings. And I hope they will do great in the world and do wonderful things so we just try to stay together and bless each other and go out and make it a better world and and as you're kind of talking about smiling what do you feel has been the funniest moment that you've experienced walking alongside Yagi in this time? It does help a sense of humor but not all the time when you're in it you feel it's so funny you can look back now and laugh but you know like I said knowing you know relatively that you know we came out not unscathed, but we're still all here. We handle it best we can. And once you don't, it's nothing terminal, we will make out.

And, you know, the brighter days are yet to come. What about Mother Zinnia? Oh, that's a funny moment. You can say that one. It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing. It's funny. We want those stories. We want those stories about this video.

And me and my appetite, we were having some great, what? Lobster rolls. So the bus is leaving. The bus is leaving. Okay. Okay, let's catch the bus before it leaves we ran on we went on a tour of the same side of the island right because we missed the one that went to the other side but you know like i said you can sit back and laugh at it one day we'll go see the

whole thing it's waiting for you but um yes i look forward to it that was a beautiful trip you know and that's what i said uh you know we don't do magnanimous things but we enjoy the little things and i think that's great i can sit here and laugh though one day i'm gonna go back and see we're gonna see the next half of the island. But so memorable and enjoyable. You have ups and downs, but you remember, I choose to remember, the little funny things. And they are very enjoyable. And what about you, Anita?

Do you have a funniest moment or a few funny moments? In a work situation, I don't know so many of them. I wasn't witness necessarily to work situations, funny moments, and so forth. I heard about them afterwards, and I'm not exactly sure if I heard everything about them. exactly sure if I heard everything about them you know I might have heard the version that's 70% and not a hundred percent or something like that you know most they say when you in a place everything that happens in that place sort of stays in that place so I haven't been witness to everything I know fear told me about the one situation. I think they were in Bangkok, and they were a lot of men together, and the one guy from the UK took drivers to do a racing

through the streets of Bangkok. And he didn't know that? Yeah, he didn't know that's going to happen. Now, Fiat knows from experience, perhaps in his student days and so forth, that when you start doing that kind of thing, then it's going to land, end up in not a good way. So obviously he was literally just literally clapping this guy to just stop. And the one tuk-tuk did land up in one of the little shops on the sideway. So those are the kind of funny things that I heard of. The funny things that I sort of experienced with him

was more on outside of the work situation, more things that we did as a family together. Those kind of things were very special most of the time. But I think the one thing that I remember most vividly probably is the most fun that we as a family had. And it was always on Sunday mornings after church. Then as a family, he would pick up the guitar and we would, Nicole and I would sing and we would sit together. And then we would totally forget about me working, him working and us running all over the show during the week and so forth. So for me, that's probably, it was funny also in the sense that it was so enjoyable.

We had so much fun and we were doing something special together. I think that's what stood out most over the years for me. I know a lot of people who listen have listened to some of my songs, but my mom has got the most beautiful voice. So hopefully one day we can sing together and then we'll get my dad to play the guitar again. That would be great. Yeah, those are wonderful memories.

I guess we can kind of wrap up in terms of, you know, as a couple who's worked together, who's built lives together, you know, what would you say is the best advice that you would give to couples where one of them is an entrepreneur and either supporting them, supporting their spouse, or even supporting themselves, you know, on the entrepreneurial journey? We have a lot, we tend to actually have a lot of listeners on Friday Fields who are entrepreneurs, just because of the circles that we're in and the families that we've come from and etc. So I think it's a unique perspective to come from an entrepreneurial family and now have entrepreneurs in the next generation. Do you have any advice

for people who are choosing to follow this path and and that's for both you Anita and Pieter. Well from my perspective I think the most valuable thing for me has been that I've had the freedom to practice what I also what also makes me happy. And I think the word that comes up is the German word Lebensraum. It gives me space in life. And I think this is what I got, and this is what I think people can do for each other, is to be able to give each other the space

to live together but also live their own journey. And that is extremely, extremely important for me. And I got that, and I'm still getting it. Do you want me to add on to that now? Yeah. Mine is quite easy. getting it. Do you want me to add on to that now? No. Mine is quite easy. If you wanted to be an entrepreneur, you must be a brave heart and enjoy the ride.

Yeah. That's great advice. How about you guys, Sandra and Yagi? I would say buckle up and enjoy the ride and have faith that things will turn out.

If you believe in it, you can really, really, really try to achieve it. Hopefully it's going to all be worthwhile. If that's your passion, go for it. I always want to do some weakness to your mother, which reminds

me, my dad... This is the best advice that you have? Yeah. So my mom was sleeping and she always sleep with her mouth open. So he took the baby bottle and put it in her mouth and she drank out the whole bottle how is that the best advice so okay so she wanted to go out there and with your mom now we don't have no grandkids or nothing so i don't have the opportunity to do that right now but i would like

to do that to her and i guess the advice would be always be passionate in what you're doing and I guess the advice would be always be passionate in what you're doing and sometimes if she gets angry I would say a word to get her to smile again you know because also your mom had a stroke many years ago a slight stroke so sometimes she don't remember everything all the time so I tried to be funny with her all the time and she's like leave me alone go whatever you know so i took the passion wrong around her anywhere she go i'll hug her give her a kiss or whatever she's like leave me alone you know but but in life you have to have that partner with compassion that whatever you're doing they are wrong to assist you in many other ways that where you are sometimes I've altered the country a lot back and forth so you need that backing and meeting so that we all can support each other

you know it's funny so we went to Trinidad this year for carnival and then we stayed by Uncle Glenn and he told us that that's his nephew is about his same age and he's like you know your dad came down here and he was trying to build his building and you know I told him if you just stick it out and have sacrifices but you know what his problem is his problem is he loves his wife too much the whole time he was just sad and I was like bro just stick it out a little bit and he had to go back and I was like wow that's the one takeaway like oh that's a great problem to have and oh thank you for sharing all of that that's really beautiful I think it's really inspiring to us again and oh thank you to all of you for coming on and sharing so openly. And we're really, really grateful.

Thank you for having us. It's a pleasure meeting you all. Yeah. Yep, so beautiful. Very much so, Mia. I so enjoyed meeting you guys because everybody's lives has become intertwined in a way, and it's lovely to meet you in person, atined in a way and it's it's lovely to meet you in person sort of at least in a way yeah this is the first episode where we had so many people on but we felt like

what other episode would we be more important so in terms of just understanding our backgrounds and the people who kind of helped shape you know our lives absolutely i just want to say good luck ladies and i'm so admirable that you both go for your goals i'm very very proud of you thank you so much thank you and to everybody out there who's listening and laughing with us today and celebrating father's day in whatever shape way or form you know what were your answers to some of these questions how are you keeping open giving life space having compassion being brave and building the things that you want to build out there and living your passions let us, engage with us on the social platforms and let us know your thoughts and your feelings and your stories.

And of course, you know, to work with us, you can always email us at hello at friday-field.co in many different capacities. We're super excited for this month of bringing in all this new energy and new topics. It's been six months since we launched the podcast and it's been super exciting. A lot of work on the back end and Nicole's lovely, creative, but also detail-oriented brain has helped, you know, push us through. And so we are super excited for what the next six months looks like and next week is the last week of this month and we're wrapping it up this fun surprise series with a bit of reminiscing on good times so stay tuned for what's to come and beyond in the fresh feels

of july but until next time that's our mix We've had fun mingling with you and we wish you safe travels into your bed, into the night, and into this awesome weekend. See you next week. Keep it real.