The Secret to Succeeding at Work and Family

When we asked EO members what they’ve learned from being a parent and an entrepreneur, we heard from Jessica Honegger of EO Austin the founder and co-CEO of Noonday Collection. She revealed how she strives for success in both work and home life.

“One thing I’ve learned about entrepreneurship and parenting? It’s that starting a business is basically akin to having another baby.

It requires as much time, energy and emotional grit—and if you’re going to be successful in finding balance between work and family, you have to bring your whole family along for the entrepreneurial journey.

I used to believe that I couldn’t be both a good entrepreneur and a good mom—but eventually, I realized that wasn’t true. It was just that I was operating as if those were two separate spheres, rather than one interconnected, shared journey. Entrepreneurs can have a tendency to operate as islands, but I’ve learned that it’s vital that we develop a ‘we’ mentality instead—and that goes double for entrepreneurs with kids. We have to recognize that entrepreneurship requires sacrifice from the whole family.

That’s why it’s so important that we bring our families along and help them understand our work. With my kids, I’ve done that by bringing them along with me on business trips to meet the artisans who Noonday Collection partners with across the globe. On these trips, they’ve met people whose lives are being changed by the work that mom and her team are doing around the world. I’ve also included them in our annual sales conference, where they’ve connected with our salesforce and learned how important Noonday Collection is to them, too. My kids are just as bought-in to the vision of this business as I am, and that is what allows us to flourish as a family.

What I’ve realized is that despite what society tells us, we can do both, and we can do both well—as long as we’re bringing our families along with us.”