Niko Papademetriou

I had shoes and clothes and I didn't really want for anything.

And he said, Nico, all I've ever wanted to do in my life was provide that to my children.

But by the same token, I'm probably holding you guys back

because I gave you everything.

And it's this quandary.

And so for a long time, I used to have an inferiority complex, for sure.

I used to always think, gosh, how could I ever be as successful as my father or as part of a worker as my father?

And just at some point in my life, in my mid to probably late 20s, I realized that was unhealthy.

That wasn't the way to look at things.

And that I am my own person.

And as soon as you start to realize that and not live for somebody else or to try to meet or beat some expectations, some made up expectation that quite frankly, again, you're the one who probably made this up anyway.

You release a lot of constraints that actually hold you back from ever realizing those kinds of lofty goals that you want to set for yourself.

And so sometime in my like, probably late 20s, I think I realized this.

And magically, at that same time, I always had a good relationship with my parents.

But at that time, my relationship with my parents, and especially my father, took a huge leap forward.

And we started really being able to communicate with each other more as peers.

Obviously, he was still my dad.

And in many ways, I always looked up to him and

But we looked at each other as peers and we had very mature conversations and we bounced ideas off of each other.

And from a work perspective, and I saw him build companies and I saw him, I saw what he looked for in people as he built teams and built companies and delivered impressive things to folks all over the world.