When Your Son Starts Auditing Your AMEX
So last week, we were sitting at the table and Rency (my EP) calls me laughing. “Kam, do I have an auditor now?” Apparently, my son Shaan had been reviewing charges on my AMEX (yes, he has it loaded on his phone, we’ll get to that) and spotted a charge at a bagel shop. He went straight to Rency to ask what it was for and why it was there. Not a text. Not a casual mention. A full inquiry. Rency handled it like a champ, but I could hear the amusement in her voice when she told me about it later.
And then he turned his attention to me. “Mom, what are all these Anthropic charges? Do we have a tracker for who’s using what?” I looked at him, this kid who is basically my clone (he looks so much like me that he’s actually opened my Apple ID before with his face, which is both flattering and mildly terrifying), and I just started laughing. I told our accounting team, half joking, that we can probably remove a resource from the budget because we have a built-in auditor living under our roof.
But here’s the thing. This isn’t new behavior for Shaan. He’s been tracking our social media accounts for a while now. A few months back, he flagged that our Philippines team was playing games on TikTok. And before anyone panics, it was completely legit.
We were running an internal contest. But he caught it. He was watching. He follows ITBD on LinkedIn. He listens in on business conversations at home. And if you’ve ever been to Build IT Live, you’ve probably seen him running the snack station with the precision of a seasoned event coordinator (he will tell you, to this day, that the success of that event is part and parcel because of how well he manages snacks, and honestly, he might not be wrong 😊). Speaking of Build IT Live (shameless plug, I know), if you haven’t marked your calendar for August 3 through 5, do it now.
Shaan’s snack station will be fully operational, our content will be on fire (lol, now I’m sounding like him), and you’ll walk away with more than just great takeaways. You’ll walk away with a community. OK, back to the story now 😊
When Curiosity Shows Up, Feed It
I bring all of this up because it makes me chuckle, sure, but also because there’s a real lesson here for all of us, whether we’re parents, leaders, or both.
We have to enable their passions, whoever that may be for you. Your kids, your team members, your mentees. When someone shows genuine curiosity about what you do, when they lean in instead of tuning you out, that’s not something to brush off or redirect. That’s something to feed.
Shaan has a passion for the business. He wants to understand how it works, where the money goes, why decisions get made, what our brand looks like out in the world. I love that about him. And we are actively enabling it. We let him sit in on conversations. We answer his questions (even the ones about bagel charges). We give him a role at events. We don’t tell him he’s too young or that it’s not his concern.
How the Next Generation of Leaders Is Built
Because here’s what I believe with my whole heart: if your kids grow up with an entrepreneur’s mindset, they will become entrepreneurs. If they grow up watching you lead, watching you build, watching you problem-solve at the dinner table and show up for your team across three countries, that becomes their normal.
That becomes their baseline. And the same goes for anyone you’re developing. When someone on your team shows interest in something outside their lane, don’t shut it down. Give them a seat. Let them ask the questions. Include them in the meetings where all the thinking happens. Welcome them into the conversation. Enable that passion. LOL, let them audit the bagel charges if that’s what gets them fired up.
If I’ve learned anything from watching my son fall in love with this company, it’s that the best way to build the next generation of leaders is to stop gatekeeping and start inviting them in. Let them be the auditor, the director of snacks, the content police, whatever title fuels their fire.
Because the people who care enough to ask about the bagel charges, who track your TikTok, who show up early to organize the snack table at your biggest event of the year, those are the ones who will grow into roles you haven’t even created yet and do more than you ever anticipated. So whether it’s your sixteen year old or your newest team member, if they’re leaning in, pull up a chair and let them sit at the table.
