What #Parenthood teaches me. I am going to share with you why you need to stop telling your kids (or team if you don’t have children) to “Stop screwing up!” and why letting them make mistakes makes them better and makes you a better leader at home and in the office. My 6 year old Mav is in this painting vinyl characters phase. We’ve bought the same Spider-Man vinyl figure from the Disney store twice already and today he asked for a third since he didn’t like his final product. Today, we purchased another one for the third time. “This is the last one I’m going to buy you Maverick.” I said, “Please be extra careful with this one and make sure that you don’t mess it up.” His smile changed to a frown and all The excitement in his eyes faded. I knew I messed up. As we get older we become more and more averse to making mistakes and playing it safe. Even I have to snap myself out of it sometimes. “Don’t worry papa. Color it however you want. Try different things. If you mess up, I’ll buy you another one.” His smile came back. It only took me 5 kids to figure this parenthood thing out.