Where's My Nepo Baby??

I was listening to the Smith Sisters Live on Sirius earlier this week (if you haven’t tuned into them, give yourself a treat) and the topic was nepo babies. I have been hearing this word but wasn’t sure what it was referring to. The Smith Sisters did a great job of explaining it and analyzing it from the Vulture article where it emerged.

I began thinking about how this phrase applies to my world. Nepotism was part of many companies hiring protocols back in the 80s. My father-in-law was an executive at 3M so my husband couldn’t work there due to the company’s nepotism rules. I expect that way back then I agreed with those dictates because I knew many guys who got to be CEOs of their father’s companies whether worthy of the position or not.

Flash forward to 2023 and honestly, I’m much more pro-nepotism. In fact, I would love for my daughter to be a nepo baby. I worked my ass off to learn how the technology industry worked and the secrets to reaching the top, many of which I document in my book, “Scenes from the Valley.” I made certain my daughter went to the right college and I have continually offered my contacts to her when she was job searching. Her response? “No thanks. I want to do it on my own.” What? I desperately wanted the keys to the kingdom when I was her age with few people to guide me. Her self-confidence surprised me, hurt a bit but truly made me proud.

So what do I do with this precious knowledge and all my contacts? Mentor. I have found there are kids out there in the same place I was in. I get great satisfaction helping them and my daughter is pleased that I'm not bugging her so much.

My husband and I were chatting last night before turning out the lights about how many mentors we had, naming them, and what they did for us. We each had one that made a great difference in our lives and helped us get to where we are.

I have quite a few goals already laid out for 2023 but I intend to keep mentoring on the list.