Business Dad: How Good Businessmen Can Make Great Fathers (and Vice Versa) [Hardcover]

Tom Hirschfeld (Author), Julie Hirschfeld (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1999

Businessmen with kids often feel trapped between rising expectations at work and at home. Although business demands seem to increase every day, fathers are now expected - and want - to be involved parents. But there are never enough hours in the day. What's a business dad to do? Tom Hirschfeld, veteran businessman and father of two, addresses the dilemma with surprising insights and sensible solutions. He shows that many of the skills and abilities required to succeed in today's economy - such as motivation, team building, empathy, negotiation, and planning - can be applied just as successfully to parenting. Businessmen who leave their corporate skills at the office each evening may actually be handicapping themselves in the struggle to be more effective fathers. Work and parenting don't have to be separate, competing efforts, but can help and enrich each other. Hirschfeld is a business dad writing for business dads. With common sense and a humorous touch, Business Dad applies proven business concepts to the challenges every father faces, such as communication, discipline, instilling moral values, sibling rivalry, and teamwork with Mom. It also tackles them toughest daily problems of the business dad, including work-family conflict, frequent travel, and time management. As a major bonus, finally, it shows how the committed dad can win at work, turning his fathering experience into a huge competitive advantage. Fathering is the most important job a businessman can undertake, and Business Dad is the perfect job manual - filled with lessons from business history, tips from successful executives, and practical wisdom that could come only from real-life experience."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This smart, straight-shooting work could very well be required reading in all graduate schools of business and is a welcome addition to the small but growing number of books on parenting aimed primarily at fathers (such as Kevin Nelson's The Daddy Guide and Aaron Hass's The Gift of Fatherhood). Hirschfeld, a venture capitalist and a former v-p at Salomon Brothers, writes in a terse style that mimics corporate bestsellers (e.g., The Pursuit of Wow! by Tom Peters), but the content is remarkably free of the self-centered, clich?-ridden tips found in most books on business. Instead, Hirschfeld aims for five goals and expertly hits each one: "Help good businessmen use their skills to be great fathers, and vice versa. Use language that businessmen can relate to, not psychobabble. Rely on common sense and experience. Address the special issues that businessmen face in trying to be dads. Make it fun." At first, it seems the book will not rise above analogies ("Make the investment that real fathering requires and you will find yourself reaping ample rewardsAboth present and future"). But chapters on effective cooperation between husbands and wives ("Joint-Venture Partners"), successfully listening to and understanding children ("Knowledge Is Power") and the tools and techniques of exerting responsible yet empathic authority and discipline should make even the most unregenerate workaholic dad understand Hirschfeld's basic message: "Fatherhood, more than business, is almost always what shapes a man's personal legacy. Simply stated, it is the most important job we'll ever undertake." (June)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A former Salomon Brothers VP argues that good business and good fathering have much in common.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; First Printing edition (June 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316219509
• ISBN-13: 978-0316219501
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,880,666 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A handy guide to parenting, October 24, 2001

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Business Dad: How Good Businessmen Can Make Great Fathers (and Vice Versa) (Hardcover)

Many powerful, effective businessmen feel lost when it comes to raising their kids. As a result, some spend more time at the office, where they are confident and capable. To remedy this dilemma, Tom and Julie Hirschfeld, a husband-and-wife team, offer a class you won't find in an M.B.A. program: Fatherhood 101. Presented as an executive briefing for a new assignment, Hirschfeld's book teaches you to apply your business know-how to achieve parenting success. The concept is long overdue, though the book skims over the crucial topic of maintaining life-work balance and is prone to gender stereotypes. getAbstract recommends this handy guide to working fathers and fathers-to-be.