A Musing Father — The Backstory
My therapist convinced me to write about my daughter's toot box...
Let me explain.
"Forgive me for the length of this About section -- I hadn't time to write a short one" - Mark Twain circa 2024
A few years back, I built a company that helped women with menopausal symptoms (CurieMD). We raised money, we had employees, paying clients... things seemed like they were on the right course.
😷 Then the pandemic hit.
😔 My wife got laid off.
👶 We had our first child.
📉 Consumer behavior changed.
All of a sudden our family went from double-income, no-kids to one-small-startup-income and one kid, amid a world was melting down around us and a startup that was struggling.
After a few months, I made the decision to shut down our business. It was brutal, but it was the right answer for our family. I called up each investor (we had 45 of them) and let them know we would discontinue CurieMD and return the rest of their money.
Most were really gracious about it. Some less so (and that's ok... losing money is tough). But really from that point forward I retreated from social media and public posts. I thrive on being liked and the next best alternative is not being disliked... it is to be invisible.
It wasn't until a couple years ago when I joined Rula Health that I actually started seeing a Rula therapist myself. It wasn't transformative overnight, but over time it helped me come back out of my shell.
---- (If you are still with me on this About page, well done you)
That brings me to now.
I have a difficult time actually being present with my kids as I don't want a repeat of what happened. It's one thing to put my own future at risk... I won't gamble with theirs.
My oldest daughter though (god bless her) has helped me snap out of this funk by being herself -- an insatiably curious, loving, silly four year old.
Recounting this experience to my therapist, he thought it would be a good exercise to write about my new focus on:
Living in the present…
Find deeper meaning in life…
A medley of other dad-related musings…
So I started this Substack and away we go (dadly.substack.com).
🙏
Consider this Substack me stepping out from the shadows. Thank you all for your help on this journey and I hope you enjoy the articles.
Much love 💕 to you and your families.
