Garren Katz on How to Be a Career Coach and Help Others Succeed

In Chapter 5 of 15 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, business and personal coach Garren Katz answers "What Does It Mean to Be a Career Coach?"   Katz notes the importance of being curious with clients, asking questions, and listening to identify challenge areas and work with his clients on creating plans to overcome them.  As his clients work toward their respective goals, Katz notes how he takes responsibility to hold clients accountable and work with them through breakdown moments. 

Garren Katz is a business and personal coach based in State College, PA and advises his national client base on small business management, entrepreneurship, relationships, and personal finances.  He is also an active angel investor in several business ventures.  He earned his BA from Western Michigan University. 

Finding Meaningful Work in a Life Coaching Career

In Chapter 6 of 15 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, business and personal coach Garren Katz answers "What Makes Your Work Meaningful?"  Katz finds the selflessness serving others as a career and life coach more rewarding than anything he has ever done.  Training and experience help him to bring out energy, competence and confidence in his clients and work with them to find new jobs and accomplish life goals. 

Garren Katz is a business and personal coach based in State College, PA and advises his national client base on small business management, entrepreneurship, relationships, and personal finances.  He is also an active angel investor in several business ventures.  He earned his BA from Western Michigan University. 

Garren Katz on Why Travel to Distant and Unfamiliar Places

In Chapter 7 of 15 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, business and personal coach Garren Katz answers "What Have You Found Most Rewarding About Traveling to New Places?"  Traveling to distant and unfamiliar places teaches Katz about people.  He finds this is something he is unable to get by watching TV or movies - being present in a foreign place connects him not only to people he meets but also to humanity in general. 

Garren Katz is a business and personal coach based in State College, PA and advises his national client base on small business management, entrepreneurship, relationships, and personal finances.  He is also an active angel investor in several business ventures.  He earned his BA from Western Michigan University. 

Garren Katz on How Personal Priorities Change With Age

In Chapter 8 of 15 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, business and personal coach Garren Katz answers "How Are Your Personal Priorities Changing as You Get Older?"  Katz notes how getting older influences his decision to more often choose what is healthier over what is fun.  This ties into his increasing focus on physical health, mental health, and spirituality. 

Garren Katz is a business and personal coach based in State College, PA and advises his national client base on small business management, entrepreneurship, relationships, and personal finances.  He is also an active angel investor in several business ventures.  He earned his BA from Western Michigan University. 

Garren Katz on How Family Relationships Change With Age

In Chapter 9 of 15 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, business and personal coach Garren Katz answers "How Are Your Family Relationships Changing As You Get Older?"  Katz is an only child that comes from a small family.  He notes how in his 20s his family was the centerpiece for holiday travel.  As Katz gets engaged, gets married and thinks about starting a family, he sees how he and the family he and his wife create will become more the centerpiece for family gatherings. 

Garren Katz is a business and personal coach based in State College, PA and advises his national client base on small business management, entrepreneurship, relationships, and personal finances.  He is also an active angel investor in several business ventures.  He earned his BA from Western Michigan University. 

Garren Katz on Helping Cancer Survivors Achieve Life Goals

In Chapter 10 of 15 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, business and personal coach Garren Katz answers "Where Can Cancer Survivors Benefit From Life Coaching?"  After coaching multiple clients and also helping friends and family through cancer, Katz finds cancer survivors do not lack passion; rather, they often lack focus.  As a coach, Katz works with cancer survivors on defining where they want to direct their energy and putting a plan in place to achieve those goals. 

Garren Katz is a business and personal coach based in State College, PA and advises his national client base on small business management, entrepreneurship, relationships, and personal finances.  He is also an active angel investor in several business ventures.  He earned his BA from Western Michigan University. 

Garren Katz on How Life Coaching Goals Change With Experience

In Chapter 11 of 15 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, business and personal coach Garren Katz answers "How Are Your Coaching Aspirations Changing as Your Experience Grows?"  Katz finds reward building on his 1-to-1 coaching and looking for group coaching, from working with couples to working with business units.  He finds the collective energy a powerful complement to the intimacy he receives in a 1-to-1 relationship. 

Garren Katz is a business and personal coach based in State College, PA and advises his national client base on small business management, entrepreneurship, relationships, and personal finances.  He is also an active angel investor in several business ventures.  He earned his BA from Western Michigan University. 

How to Stop Being Busy and Better Manage Time Commitments

In Chapter 12 of 15 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, business and personal coach Garren Katz answers "How Are You Learning to Better Manage Your Time and Commitments?"  Katz shares how he has worked to change his behavior over time.  He finds himself in an "always busy" mode focused on minutiae and avoiding what was important.  He learns to clear out the busy work and focus on priorities that provide the greatest benefit for his energy. 

Garren Katz is a business and personal coach based in State College, PA and advises his national client base on small business management, entrepreneurship, relationships, and personal finances.  He is also an active angel investor in several business ventures.  He earned his BA from Western Michigan University. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How are you learning to better manage your time and commitments? 

Garren Katz: That’s making the assumption that I am learning to manage my time and commitments better. I would say I used to make myself extremely busy, which I never realized what I was, in essence, doing, was doing a fantastic job of avoiding, avoiding what truly is important, or what I deem is important, the priority that I’ve made it. When you clear out the busy-ness and it’s amazing when you actually look at how you spend your time or when I would look—speaking specifically for myself, how I would spend my time, a great deal of my time was spent working on things that really weren’t significant, just busy work, you know, the difference between, you know, being in action and being active. I’m more focused now on what my priorities are and that’s made making time commitments actually much easier because I’m taking on less. 

Erik Michielsen: And what were those priorities before and what are those priorities now?

Garren Katz: The priorities before were, you know, the squeaky hinge, whatever happened to be in front of me, that’s what I would take on, or whatever popped into my head. Now, taking a moment and pausing, and really thinking: what is the benefit of this action? Is this necessary? Could my time be better spent dedicated to something else? Whether it’s a 5-minute project or a week-long activity, where would I benefit the most—where would my partner and I benefit the most? Where should my energy go? That’s how—that’s the decision making process I go through now— not always, of course, but that’s what I go through now whereas before it was whatever the flavor of the week was, whatever the flavor of the moment was, chasing as opposed to really having a focus.

Stacie Bloom on Finding a New Job in Neuroscience Education

In Chapter 1 of 18 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Neuroscience Institute Executive Director Stacie Grossman Bloom answers "Since We Last Spoke, What Has Been the Most Exciting Thing to Happen in Your Life?"  Bloom details how she was presented an opportunity - in between her Year 1 and Year 2 Capture Your Flag interviews - to leave the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) for an executive position at NYU and why she accepted it. 

Stacie Grossman Bloom is Executive Director for the Neuroscience Institute at the NYU Langone Medical Center.  Previously, she was VP and Scientific Director at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) and, before that, held editorial roles at the Journal of Clinical Investigation and Nature Medicine.  She earned her BA in chemistry and psychology from the University of Delaware, her PhD in Neurobiology and Cell Biology at Georgetown University and did post-doctoral training in Paul Greengard's Nobel Laboratory of Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience at Rockefeller University. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  Since we last spoke, what has been the most exciting thing to happen in your life?

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  I would say that I really got this amazing new job about one year ago. And I think it happened very shortly after I got the chance to interview for you the last time. This is not something that I was expecting to necessarily get or wasn’t really even looking for it at the time. I think I was ready in my last position to explore new possibilities but I hadn’t even really thought much about what those possibilities could be. And then this opportunity presented itself to me and it just really sounded like a great fit.

Erik Michielsen:  Could you tell me more about the opportunity?

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  Sure. So my new position is as executive director for the NYU Neuroscience Institute, which is a new entity that we’re currently in the process of building at NYU up at the medical center.

Erik Michielsen:  Now, is that part of the university or is it part of—How does that work within the context of the university and the medical center?

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  Yeah, NYU is interesting in terms of that relationship, so the main part of NYU—what people think of as NYU is all located around Washington Square. We call it Downtown. And the hospital and the medical center are in the 30’s and we call it Uptown. You know, obviously, they’re the same umbrella organization, although they have a slightly different governance structure and different tax identification numbers, making them a little bit fiscally independent, from what I understand.

Stacie Bloom on What Gets Easier and What Gets Harder

In Chapter 4 of 18 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Neuroscience Institute Executive Director Stacie Grossman Bloom answers "What is Getting Easier and What is Getting Harder in Your Life?"  Bloom notes it is more about how things are changing rather than what is getting easier or harder.  She notes her three children are getting older, which presents new approaches to raising them.  As the children get older, raising them does not get easier; rather it is more about their needs changing.  She notes her job change and the additional responsibility and accountability that come with her work. 

Stacie Grossman Bloom is Executive Director for the Neuroscience Institute at the NYU Langone Medical Center.  Previously, she was VP and Scientific Director at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) and, before that, held editorial roles at the Journal of Clinical Investigation and Nature Medicine.  She earned her BA in chemistry and psychology from the University of Delaware, her PhD in Neurobiology and Cell Biology at Georgetown University and did post-doctoral training in Paul Greengard's Nobel Laboratory of Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience at Rockefeller University.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  What is getting easier and what is getting harder in your life?

Stacie Grossman Bloom: I wouldn’t say that things are necessarily getting harder and easier so much as they’re changing. I think my children are getting older, that’s a little easier in some ways but harder in other ways. I’ve changed jobs. I would say that this new job that I have comes with a higher level of responsibility. I would say that there’s just more accountability in this position that I have currently. And that I feel that burden or that weight on me more than I did in my previous work. 

Erik Michielsen:  And how about the children, like when you talk about getting them older and making it easier but also harder, what do you mean?

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  You know, when they’re babies, they have specific needs, and it’s hard to raise children. It’s hard to take care of babies. You know, it’s hard to know why they’re crying, or changing diapers all the time, and you think it will get easier as they get older because they’ll become more self-sufficient but the truth is they have other needs, they need you for other things. They’re more interested in pursuing different activities. It becomes this situation where, you know, one wants to take a swim class, one wants to take a soccer class, one wants to take a music class and suddenly you become one of those parents who are really running all over the place on the weekends, doing all of these things that you could never have imagined when they were 6 months old.

Stacie Bloom: How Working Parent Priorities Change

In Chapter 5 of 18 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Neuroscience Institute Executive Director Stacie Grossman Bloom answers "How Are Your Personal Priorities Changing as You Get Older?"  Bloom notes how she works to maintain balance around her ambitious career focus while raising three kids.  She notes the daily struggle she goes through being present both in the office and in the home and working through the emotions and decisions that play into finding that balance. 

Stacie Grossman Bloom is Executive Director for the Neuroscience Institute at the NYU Langone Medical Center.  Previously, she was VP and Scientific Director at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) and, before that, held editorial roles at the Journal of Clinical Investigation and Nature Medicine.  She earned her BA in chemistry and psychology from the University of Delaware, her PhD in Neurobiology and Cell Biology at Georgetown University and did post-doctoral training in Paul Greengard's Nobel Laboratory of Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience at Rockefeller University. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  How are your personal priorities changing as you get older?

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  My personal priorities have changed because I have a family. So, you know, I’ve always been a very ambitious career-focused person, and I still am, I still am. I think in that aspect, nothing has changed. But I can’t really stay at the office until 9:00 at night anymore. I can’t even stay at the office until 7:00 at night anymore. And so, you know, I just have to find the right balance. And I struggle with it every day. I’m always really self-conscious when I’m walking out the door at 5:00 and my whole team is still there working really hard, but on the other hand, my kids are really important, and they’re not going to be living in my house for a very long time, and I wanna have dinner with them every night, so my priorities have changed because, although I’ve always been very career focused, I now have another big major focus, and I wanna give as much of myself to each of those things as possible. 

Stacie Bloom on Learning to Balance Family and Career

In Chapter 6 of 18 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Neuroscience Institute Executive Director Stacie Grossman Bloom answers "At This Moment in Your Life, Where are You Seeking Advice and Coaching?"  Bloom shares her struggle trying to find balance and her desire to find someone in her life who has done it before.  As it stands, Bloom notes she does not have a female figure in her life to provide that advice and support on raising three kids while working a full-time job. 

Stacie Grossman Bloom is Executive Director for the Neuroscience Institute at the NYU Langone Medical Center.  Previously, she was VP and Scientific Director at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) and, before that, held editorial roles at the Journal of Clinical Investigation and Nature Medicine.  She earned her BA in chemistry and psychology from the University of Delaware, her PhD in Neurobiology and Cell Biology at Georgetown University and did post-doctoral training in Paul Greengard's Nobel Laboratory of Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience at Rockefeller University. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  At this moment in your life, where are you seeking advice and coaching? 

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  At this moment in my life, I think it would be really great to have some advice or some coaching about how to balance it all. And you know, like I said, every day I think is a little bit of a struggle for me. I do feel a lot of guilt. You know, I’m not the mom who’s going on all of the field trips, but I go on some. I think it would be great to have someone in my life who has sort of done this, who has had the great big wonderful job and the great big wonderful family, and sort of did all. But I—right now, I don’t really have a person like that, and I kind of wish that I did.

Erik Michielsen:  Are you actively seeking something like that? Like, by reaching out and—

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  No, I’m not. I mean I think that if I had come across someone like that I would probably latch onto them a little bit. I do, you know, come across women sometimes who have raised 3 kids and who have done these amazing things, and I do tend to corner them and ask them a lot of questions, but I’m not pushy enough to continue to follow up over and over again. But I especially think it’s challenging. I have 3 daughters, and I think that that’s a really big challenge, raising girls I think is tricky, and I would love to know, you know, how do you raise 3 girls, have a job, make sure that they’re well-adjusted, confident, smart girls who are making smart decisions, but you know what? Even if I stayed home, and didn’t have a job, I think I’d have that same problem.

Stacie Bloom on Finding Purpose Working in Neuroscience

In Chapter 7 of 18 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Neuroscience Institute Executive Director Stacie Grossman Bloom answers "What Makes Your Work Meaningful?"  Bloom hopes that the research work done at the NYU Neuroscience Institute will translate into some kinds of new therapies that improve patient outcomes.  She notes how an aging patient population is generating increases in neurological diseases - autism, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's - is creating economic and psychological challenges and how her work at the NYU Neuroscience Institute aims to foster research science and clinical science collaboration to create new therapies for the diseases. 

Stacie Grossman Bloom is Executive Director for the Neuroscience Institute at the NYU Langone Medical Center.  Previously, she was VP and Scientific Director at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) and, before that, held editorial roles at the Journal of Clinical Investigation and Nature Medicine.  She earned her BA in chemistry and psychology from the University of Delaware, her PhD in Neurobiology and Cell Biology at Georgetown University and did post-doctoral training in Paul Greengard's Nobel Laboratory of Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience at Rockefeller University. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  What makes your work meaningful?

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  What makes my work meaningful is the hope that what we’re doing will someday reach the patient. The expectation that the research that’s going on at the NYU Neuroscience Institute will have a translational component to it that will allow it to be developed into some kind of a new therapy and that will ultimately be able to improve patient health and patient outcomes especially as the patient population and the population in general is just aging. The affliction of neurological disease like Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, the increase in the prevalence of autism in our population, these things are having such a big societal impact on us economically, as well as psychologically. And the hope that the work that we’re doing and what we’re building will have an impact on  alleviating some of that.

Erik Michielsen:  What are some of the signals or some of the steps you look for in working toward that, that goal? 

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  I mean the purpose of the institute is really to build bridges between the basic scientists and the clinicians, to really become a very translational entity. And by translational, I mean it’s a sort of pedestrian phrase but bench to bedside, so everybody talks about the lab work that’s being done at the bench with all of the pipettes and the chemicals but that actually reaching the bedside in the hospital and actually reaching the patient. And one of the purposes of one of the big goals of the NYU Neuroscience Institute because we have both of those populations, we have the basic scientists and we have these amazing clinicians, one of the goals is to bring those 2 populations together and to foster the types of collaborations and conversations that can push the field forward in that kind of a way.

Stacie Bloom on Breaking Out of a Comfort Zone

In Chapter 9 of 18 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Neuroscience Institute Executive Director Stacie Grossman Bloom answers "Where is Your Comfort Zone and What Do You Do to Break Free of Living in It?"  Bloom notes she feels comfortable in a broad range of situations.  She learns over time to push through situations where she feels self-conscious or uncomfortable, such as speaking up at a meeting with someone very senior in her field.  

Stacie Grossman Bloom is Executive Director for the Neuroscience Institute at the NYU Langone Medical Center.  Previously, she was VP and Scientific Director at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) and, before that, held editorial roles at the Journal of Clinical Investigation and Nature Medicine.  She earned her BA in chemistry and psychology from the University of Delaware, her PhD in Neurobiology and Cell Biology at Georgetown University and did post-doctoral training in Paul Greengard's Nobel Laboratory of Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience at Rockefeller University. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  Where is your comfort zone and what do you do to break free of living in it?

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  My comfort zone is pretty big. I would say that it takes a lot to get me out of my comfort zone. I think one of my best characteristics, one of the things that’s helped me the most is that I feel comfortable in a really broad range of situations. To break out of it, you know, I sort of force myself sometimes to do things that I’m not necessarily comfortable with. I’ll force myself to speak up at a meeting where, you know, there’s the head of the FDA sitting across the table from me. Those are situations that might make me feel self-conscious or uncomfortable. At work, you know, I very often have to have difficult conversations with people that are a little bit outside my comfort zone, I just make myself do it, I don’t usually hesitate very much, I’ll just usually go in guns a-blazing.

Stacie Bloom on Reflection-Informed Personal Growth

In Chapter 12 of 18 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Neuroscience Institute Executive Director Stacie Grossman Bloom answers "What Role Has Reflection Played in Shaping Your Personal Growth?"  Bloom shares how reflection has become more important as she gets older.  Now in her 30s, Bloom uses reflection to set more clear priorities in her work and her relationships. 

Stacie Grossman Bloom is Executive Director for the Neuroscience Institute at the NYU Langone Medical Center.  Previously, she was VP and Scientific Director at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) and, before that, held editorial roles at the Journal of Clinical Investigation and Nature Medicine.  She earned her BA in chemistry and psychology from the University of Delaware, her PhD in Neurobiology and Cell Biology at Georgetown University and did post-doctoral training in Paul Greengard's Nobel Laboratory of Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience at Rockefeller University. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  What role has reflection played in shaping your personal growth? 

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  I’ve become a much more sort of reflective person over time. I think, you know, I was in my 20’s, I was running around all the time, I was doing a million things, I didn’t really think about my actions, I just sort of lived for the moment. And now I realize I wanna create a legacy, and I wanna build a great Neuroscience Institute at NYU, I wanna help contribute to an effort that really will bring benefit to people’s lives, and in my own personal life. I want to have a successful relationship with my husband, and I wanna raise great kids. And a lot of that is looking into myself and my actions and my behaviors, and trying to make the best decisions that I can to make sure that I’m gonna be proud of my life.

Stacie Bloom on How Problem Solving Skills Improve Your Life

In Chapter 14 of 18 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Neuroscience Institute Executive Director Stacie Grossman Bloom answers "How Are You Applying Your Problem Solving Skills in Your New Role?"  Bloom notes how problem solving is the skill she uses from her PhD studies more than any other.  She uses the skills to manager her life, clearly delineating the problem and putting a plan in action to solve it, across her work and raising her three kids at home. 

Stacie Grossman Bloom is Executive Director for the Neuroscience Institute at the NYU Langone Medical Center.  Previously, she was VP and Scientific Director at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) and, before that, held editorial roles at the Journal of Clinical Investigation and Nature Medicine.  She earned her BA in chemistry and psychology from the University of Delaware, her PhD in Neurobiology and Cell Biology at Georgetown University and did post-doctoral training in Paul Greengard's Nobel Laboratory of Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience at Rockefeller University. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  How are you applying your problem solving skills in your new role?

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  I am a problem solver. I mean I feel like people who are trained as scientists are problem solvers. That’s what your training gives you, besides from your scientific knowledge, the ability to navigate a problem and figure out how to solve it independently. I think that that’s the one skill from having a PhD that I use more than anything else, and I use it at work, I use it at home, I use it with my children, I use it as a working mother. I definitely think that I apply problem-solving skills to—maybe a little bit too much I think. My husband would complain about it a little bit. But I do think that I can very clearly delineate the problem and put a plan in action to solve it. 

Erik Michielsen:  How are you applying your problem solving skills in new ways?

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  I would say that my life is more complicated and busier than it probably ever has been before. My job is pretty intense. I have 3 kids at home. There’s a lot to manage. And I would say that I use my problem solving skills to manage my life. I’m a really organized person. I sort of start each day with a plan of attack, a plan of action. And having good problem solving skills and the ability to stay organized just help me do all of these things that I sort of need to get done.

Simon Sinek on How Family Relationships Change With Age

In Chapter 2 of 16 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, author and public speaker Simon Sinek answers "How Are Your Family Relationships Changing as You Get Older?"  Sinek notes how he and his sister now have the adult conversations, including asking each other for advice, that once was reserved for asking their parents.  Sinek also transitions from his parents treating him like a child to a more balanced, grown-up, peer-based relationship built on mutual respect and sharing.  Simon Sinek teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people.  His goal is to "inspire people to do the things that inspire them" and help others find fulfillment in their work.  Sinek is the author of "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action".  He works regularly with the United States Military, United States Congress, and many organizations, agencies and entrepreneurs.  Sinek is an adjunct professor at Columbia University and an adjunct staff member at the think tank RAND Corporation.  Sinek earned a BA in Cultural Anthropology from Brandeis University.

Transcript

Erik Michielsen:  How are your family relationships changing as you get older?

Simon Sinek:  My sister and I are adults now. And so we have adult conversations, we will ask each other all kinds of advice that we used to ask our parents about, career advice, relationship advice, things that we used to go to our parents, you know, we go to each other now. And also you know on some level, there’s a click when you grow up at home, you’re at home, from you know, zero to 18, and then whether you go to college or go on to do something else. You leave.

And the problem is, is you keep growing up, or at least I can speak for myself, I kept growing up, but my parents knew me from when I left the house at 18, and so they would still treat me very much like the 18-year-old even though I was still growing up. And they would give me some credit as I sort of entered the workforce, you know, but they still treated me like the person they knew very, very well, even though things had changed, I’ve matured in some ways and—less mature in other ways but the point is that for a good chunk of time most of my 20’s I would say they kind of had a little warped vision of who I was because they’re treating me like the thing they knew, right?

And so I think what has happened now is it’s evened out, which is my parents are still my parents, and there’s that wonderful dynamic but we’re peers much more now. And we treat each other as peers, which is nice. It’s an amazing experience when your parents come to you for advice about something that they’re dealing with, or that my dad and I will have a business conversation, it’s just not me asking him for advice, it’s now him asking me for advice, and that’s been sort of incredible to be able to have that kind of dynamic with my parents. Yeah, huge respect, huge mutual respect. And not sort of the traditional sort of parental respect, oh, you’re my parents. But respect for each other for who we are, not just for the role we play.

Simon Sinek on How Growing Up All Over World Shapes Family Values

In Chapter 3 of 16 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, author and public speaker Simon Sinek answers "What Childhood Experiences Have Been Most Fundamental in Shaping Who You Are Today?"  By the age of 10, Sinek had lived on four continents - North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.  Moving frequently, Simon and his sister do not develop traditional roots and friendships.  Instead, Simon and his family become very close and learn to rely on and support one another.  Simon Sinek teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people.  His goal is to "inspire people to do the things that inspire them" and help others find fulfillment in their work.  Sinek is the author of "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action".  He works regularly with the United States Military, United States Congress, and many organizations, agencies and entrepreneurs.  Sinek is an adjunct professor at Columbia University and an adjunct staff member at the think tank RAND Corporation.  Sinek earned a BA in Cultural Anthropology from Brandeis University.

Transcript

Erik Michielsen:  How are your family relationships changing as you get older?

Simon Sinek:  My sister and I are adults now. And so we have adult conversations, we will ask each other all kinds of advice that we used to ask our parents about, career advice, relationship advice, things that we used to go to our parents, you know, we go to each other now. And also you know on some level, there’s a click when you grow up at home, you’re at home, from you know, zero to 18, and then whether you go to college or go on to do something else. You leave.

And the problem is, is you keep growing up, or at least I can speak for myself, I kept growing up, but my parents knew me from when I left the house at 18, and so they would still treat me very much like the 18-year-old even though I was still growing up. And they would give me some credit as I sort of entered the workforce, you know, but they still treated me like the person they knew very, very well, even though things had changed, I’ve matured in some ways and—less mature in other ways but the point is that for a good chunk of time most of my 20’s I would say they kind of had a little warped vision of who I was because they’re treating me like the thing they knew, right?

And so I think what has happened now is it’s evened out, which is my parents are still my parents, and there’s that wonderful dynamic but we’re peers much more now. And we treat each other as peers, which is nice. It’s an amazing experience when your parents come to you for advice about something that they’re dealing with, or that my dad and I will have a business conversation, it’s just not me asking him for advice, it’s now him asking me for advice, and that’s been sort of incredible to be able to have that kind of dynamic with my parents. Yeah, huge respect, huge mutual respect. And not sort of the traditional sort of parental respect, oh, you’re my parents. But respect for each other for who we are, not just for the role we play.