Home Improvement Magazine Kitchen Fashions Fall 2017 | Page 16

THE RESPONSIBILITY TO
BE IRRESPONSIBLE
Jim Sheils has a clear purpose: to deepen relationships and improve education. He is an entrepreneur
and author of the popular book, The Family Board Meeting, which is helping parents worldwide
reconnect with their kids in fun and experiential ways. Jim is an avid surfer and lives in St Augustine,
Florida, with his beautiful wife, Jamie, and his four children.
I
saw it time and time again. I’d attend events in personal
development, entrepreneurship, financial intelligence and
relationship building. I was able to apply the lessons taught
directly to help improve my life. The results committed
me to becoming a lifelong student in these subjects. These were smart men and women with money. I believe
they had good hearts and the best intentions when
starting the journey, but they lost their way and their
priorities. They stopped living the message they were
marketing on late night TV and in the big magazines.
However, some of the “gurus,” at these events shared
something in common. On stage they’d flash a picture
of theirselves sitting on the hood of a sports car in front
of a mansion. Along with that, there would be a picture
of their family on vacation in a tropical destination. Earl Nightingale once said, “As you attempt to put
yourself in a position to acquire all the things that money
can buy, don’t sacrifice the things money can’t buy.”
I’ve never cared much about sport cars or mansions. Still,
I really looked up to all these people – until I started
guest speaking and saw behind the curtain. People
say a picture says a thousand words – but they don’t
always say what the people on stage want them to.
Behind the curtain, some of these gurus were always on
the road. Some of them were closet alcoholics. Some worse.
Their marriages were failing or over. Saddest of all, many
of them had barely any relationship with their children.
This saying haunted me. It haunted my surf buddies.
We’d talk about it at length on our surf trips. We made a
pact not to fall into this trap. Relationships would come
first and there would be no substitute for quality time.
This was the birth of the Board Meeting Strategy
– a simple rhythm that has been a grounding pillar
for building a relationship with our kids.
It works like this: every 90 days we have a Board
Meeting with our children. It’s a minimum of
four uninterrupted hours and it’s always:
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One-on-one