How Are You 'Parenting' Your Career?

This is a photo of me with two of my most trusted advisors: my sons, Kaleim and Rezwan. They both are MBAs, they both have proven themselves to have sharp and creative business minds in their own right, and they both hold positions of great responsibility and influence at Spear. I'm proud to say that we have reached a point where I am seeking their advice as much as I am giving mine to them.

I like to think that I had something to do with this; that I played a role in their development into independently successful young men. In their younger years, my wife Shahinool and I spent a lot of time guiding, encouraging and advising them about how to make the right decisions.

We never tried to run their lives for them, but we wanted to help them connect the dots and see how today's choices were tied to tomorrow's results. We wanted to give them every opportunity to get it right. I think that's something all parents understand. Your kids' future is just too important to be left to chance.

So here's my question: Why don't we think about our own professional lives in the same way? It's surprising when you think about it, how so many people who are careful about giving their kids a roadmap to success take a hands-off approach to their own lives.

These people are happy when the stars align and things are going well, and they pray when they're feeling cursed, but in between they pretty much just take life as it comes, with no clear sense of direction.

Who is connecting the dots for you? Who is protecting your future and making sure you stay on track and on purpose? The simple truth is, you are always parenting your career. You can choose to be an absentee parent, or you can choose to be involved, engaged and committed. I think we know which kind of parent has the better track record.