Before we begin, we want to send good wishes to all of the dads reading our blog. We hope you had an absolutely outstanding Father’s Day, and that your family’s dedication to the celebration didn’t end with a poorly wrapped tacky tie!
Fathers inspire – that quality kind of comes with the job. We look up to our dads, literally and figuratively, from the minute we can crane our heads upward and comprehend everything the most important man in our life does for us. So it is no surprise that some of our favorite entrepreneurs were so drastically shaped by their experiences with their own fathers.
- Samuel Adams Brewing Company – Jim Koch Jim is one of the most visible beer moguls in the country, and his love for the brew came directly from his dear old pa. Jim comes from a long-line of brewers, according to his company’s website, and tucked away in his parent’s attic was an old recipe for Louis-Koch Lager; the spiritual “father” of Sam Adams Lager. Jim even bought the Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewery, the very brewery his dad was apprenticed to in Cincinatti, and converted it for his own business. And, even though his father thought it was a little silly to leave a corporate position to brew beer, the elder Koch still supported his son and was proud to see the Koch brewing tradition flare alive once again. That support paid off – Sam Adams is a wildly succesful independent brewer, and Jim installed his dad onto the Board of Directors.
- Comcast – Brian Roberts
- And, of course, MyCorporation’s Deborah Sweeney
Comcast is a company that has been able to stay in the family. Brian’s dad Ralph started the business back in 1963 and his son Brian showed a keen interest in the family business from his early teens. Company rumor has it that Brian was able to find an accounting error that had mystified the older employees at Comcast. Brian’s keen attention to detail reportedly varies from the managerial style of his father, who he describes as being much more of a risk taker. Saying he is a constant source of encouragement and blessed with endless patience, Brian clearly looks up to the elder Roberts. It seems that the son is never afraid of asking the father for advice, and Comcast has clearly benefited from the close familial connection in the board room.
We couldn’t very well skip over our own CEO, could we? Deborah says that her love of entrepreneurism came with the her father’s dedication to hard work and the lessons that her father taught her. Deborah says that, if nothing else, her dad is a hard worker – he literally climbed his way up from the mailroom to eventually become Director of Sound at Warner Brothers. He’s a no-nonsense kind of guy, and though she’s a little more loosey-goosy she still embodies his focus and dedication. Even after he retired, we still see him in the office delivering corporate documents to the state! Deborah says she feels extremely lucky – not just because he delivers documents for the company, but because she gets to see her dad and chat with him whenever they both have some downtime.