Lessons in life (and business analysis) I learned from my son

He’s the boss.

This little bundle of cuteness is my son, lovingly nicknamed Lord Nelson (the reasons for which become pretty obvious after spending 5 minutes in his company), and since his arrival, he’s brought chaos and joy in abundance to our family. Of course, we wouldn’t trade that chaos for anything in the world, even though he’s directly responsible for the noticeable increase in the number of grey hairs I’m now sporting. I like to think that I can model the salt & pepper look as well as Idris Elba, although I’ve been assured by Mrs N on several occasions that this line of thinking could at best be described as aspirational.

Harsh, but such is life.

Becoming a dad is and has been a steep learning curve, and the cliche that parenting doesn’t come with a manual is very, very true. You find yourself constantly learning and having to pick things up on the fly in order to make sure that you meet all of the needs of the little one who is completely dependent on you for his or her survival. No pressure, right?

I’ve learned that he is like a sponge and observes and absorbs a lot of the lessons that we directly (and often inadvertently) teach him, so we have to be careful about the example that we set in our words and actions. (True story: my cousin, who was 2 years…