Nobody Tells You How To Change a Diaper Either

When you step into fatherhood for the first time, you have no idea how to change a diaper.

You take a deep breath, make a few faces, and somehow the job gets done. Eventually.

Then your kid starts growing, while you feed them. Not just food, but education, wisdom, and advice. And you stand back and hope, quietly, that they turn out better than you ever anticipated.

When you open a business, it’s the same deal — you have no idea what you’re getting into.

In celebration of Father’s Day, I’ve got a story like that for you.

My first blind installation took three and a half hours.

“Mrs. Jones” checked on my progress four times before I finally got a beautiful set of vertical blinds onto her sunroom window.

Something so simple that today, 20 years later, would take me 25 minutes, tops.

But back then? Like a brand-new daddy holding a diaper for the first time, I had no clue what I was doing with a drill in my hand.

The Real Job of Building a Business

Then comes the real battle. You feed it everything you’ve got. You work weekends and overnights, but nobody sees that part.

To raise “my kid,” I took a lot of parenting classes too. How to treat people with respect. How to stand out in a crowded room. Even Financials CPR — enough to survive the 2008 crash and a pandemic without losing her.

Here’s the thing nobody tells you, whether it’s fatherhood or business.

You step into it with no clue. It sounds exciting and promising, but there are no guarantees. In fact, more than 80% of new businesses don’t make it. Only a very few get past the 5-year mark.

And somewhere in all that, the business raised me as much as I raised it.

Today, Shades In Place turns 20. Lots of blood, sweat, and tears — and a few words I won’t print here.

A New Chapter: The Grandchild

So here’s where the story turns.

I raised Shades In Place. And 20 years later, Shades In Place gave birth to a book.

The grandchild’s name is Nobody Told Me That.

Everything in it — the storytelling, the trust, the starting over, the courage to build before I was ready — none of it came from a classroom. It came from two decades of doing it: the lessons, the laughs, and the screw-ups. The book is what the business and I made together.

A Triple Celebration

So this week is three things at once.

It’s Shades In Place turning 20. It’s Father’s Day. And it’s the week I officially open the door on the book.

You don’t have to be a father to know what it means to build something. To protect it. Lose sleep over it. Pour everything in and quietly hope it turns out okay.

So consider this your invitation.

Nobody Told Me That officially launches on September 9th. I’m not asking you to buy anything today. I’m just opening the door and saying: please come in. Walk around. The pre-launch starts now, and I want you here to celebrate with me.

Twenty years ago I didn’t know if any of this would work. I just knew I couldn’t not try.

P.S. — Want a taste of the book before everyone else? Grab the free sample chapter here. And if you want to see what’s coming September 9th, it lives here.