← Kreatures Of Habit Podcast 
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When my son, my first son was born, I came up with this idea to speak values to him and principles that have helped really shape my life. The person that I am today, to say them out loud to him, even when he was a tiny little baby. And I. And I made a commitment that I was going to say these values out loud to my son and now sons every night that I put them down. And so we call them the 13 things. And the 13 things are these. Always protect your brother, ladies. Always go first. Squeeze an eyes, remember people's names. Lift up the toilet seat when you need to go to the bathroom, and put the toilet seat back down when you're done. Look to the left before crossing the road. Look to the right before crossing the road. Kindness always wins. Always have courage. Always be kind to mommy when daddy's away. Always tell a teacher, guardian, or parent if you're going to step away from a situation. And most importantly, I love you. And Those are the 13 things that I walk through with my sons. They know them by heart. We say them together. An entrepreneur straight out of New York City, Michael Chernow, was cracking. What's going on? Guys? Guys. Welcome back to the Creatures AB podcast. Monday moments. Monday moments. I want to talk to you guys today about values and principles and how important they are and how important they are as a parent. So I have been putting my sons to bed since they were born. So it's almost 11 years now that I've been putting children to bed. And from when my son, my first son was born, I came up with this idea to speak values to him and principles that have helped really shape my life. The person that I am today, to say them out loud to him, even when he was a tiny little baby. And I. And I made a commitment that I was gonna. That I was gonna say these values out loud to my son. And now sons, every night that I put them down. And I've added values and principles over the years, but for the last probably five, six years, it's been 13, 13 values and principles. And so we call them the 13 things, my sons and I. And so every night that I put them down, we go upstairs, we brush teeth, we take a piss, we turn on the sound machine. The boys lie down in bed. I lie down with them and I read them a few pages out of a book. And then I get out of their bed and I drop down on the floor and I say, all right, guys, give me the 13. And the 13 things are these. Always protect your brother, ladies. Always go first. Squeeze an Eyes remember people's names. Lift up the toilet seat when you need to go to the bathroom and put the toilet seat back down when you're done. Look to the left before crossing the road. Look to the right before crossing the road. Kindness always wins. Always have courage. Always be kind to mommy when daddy's away. Always, always tell a teacher, guardian or parent if you're going to step away from a situation. And most importantly, I love you. And Those are the 13 things that I walk through with my sons. They know them by heart. We say them together. And I'll walk through those 13 things with you because I just, I find it to be so important to instill values and principles in your kids and it's so hard to do that when they're so small. So my thought process here is I say them with them every night and they will remember them and as they get older they will start to ask me questions about these things. And that's already started to happen. So always protect your brother. Super self explanatory. And they do that. They protect each other 100%. Ladies always go first. Chivalry is something that I believe in at my core and my father instilled that in me. One of the few things that I really took away from our relationship was this idea that, you know, you respect women no matter what, at all cost. You never step in front of a woman. You open the door, you hold the door. Ladies always go first. Squeeze. An eyes squeeze. And eyes is when you meet somebody, whether it's the first time or the 500th time, you look them in the eye and you give them a nice firm handshake. Squeeze in eyes, remember people's names. I was in the hospitality business from 12 to 39 before I launched Creatures of Habit. And one of the greatest attributes that I think I had as a hospitality human was that I was very, very good at remembering people's names. Every human being on the planet's favorite word, whether they know it consciously or subconsciously, is their own name. They want to hear their own name over and over and over again. So if you can address people by their name, and it would be the requirement for that is to remember their name. You just have leverage. They people enjoy that. People like being addressed by their name, especially if you don't know them very well. So I always tell my sons when they, when we talk about that value or that principle, when you're meeting somebody for the first time, be present enough to remember their names because sometimes people are not going to make an impression on you strong enough for you just to remember their name based on a conversation. So if you can really, really try to focus and be present when you meet that person for the first time and you introduce yourself, they tell you their name, boom, lock it in. So remembering people's names is super important. Lifting up the toilet seat when you go to the bathroom. I, you know, this was another thing that my father was emphatic on, on teaching me as a young kid. There's nothing worse than sitting down on a toilet seat and it's got somebody else's piss on it, right? And it's also not fun to like, have to roll up toilet paper and then wipe down someone else's piss before you sit on the toilet seat. So you lift up the toilet seat before you go to the bathroom, and then when you're done, you put the seat down. Because guess what? You know what's worse than having to clean up someone's toilet seat? Having to touch the toilet seat when walking into a bathroom. And because somebody had has left it up, it's just disrespectful. Lift up the toilet seat and put the toilet seat back down when you're done, look to the left one crossing the road, and look to the right one crossing the road. You know, I grew up in Manhattan, in New York City. So there was a lot of crossing the street as a kid. Just like you just cross the street all the time and if you didn't look to the left and the right, you were going to get hit. It's just a fact. I knew a lot of kids that got hit by cars, and it's interesting, but it's a fact. Playing roller hockey, skateboarding, just walking across the street, like kids were getting hit by cars because they would just run into the street. So for me and the kids, you know, it's really, really important. Look to the left, look to the right. Always have courage. You know, courage is the key to my success. Courage is the key to my success. And, you know, it's not something that you can necessarily teach. Courage is not something that you can necessarily teach, but it is certainly something that you can project. And I only hope that my sons see that I'm a courageous human and they want to emulate that. They know that I'm a risk taker. They know that I do things that are, that are courageous, that are risky, that, you know, not every single, you know, human does. They know their dad's a business guy, they know their dad's an athlete. They know their dad's A hunter. You know, they know their dad likes to run crazy long distances. They know their dad is a courageous human. And so we talk about courage a lot. Kindness always wins. That's my story. I've led with my heart as a, as, as a business owner and now as a father. From, is from, from ever. Kindness has always been the core of my leadership style. I have a really hard time being an and I've done okay so far. So kindness is certainly something that people remember in a positive way when it comes to business or just any relationship. At the end of the day, people have to like you in order to want to do and make and create with you. And so that's where the kindness piece comes in. It's not something that I have to work hard at and inherently I think I am just a kind human being, but not everybody is. And so that is something you can teach. Being more self aware, being more mindful when you speak. Always be kind to mommy when daddy's away. I travel a lot, so, you know, I, I really, I, I, I think the boys are, they're, they're kind kids. I mean, they're, they're, I got blessed with like two very, very kind, sweet kids. But you know, yeah, I think, you know, just, just hitting that one home when dad's away. Just make it easy on mom. Always tell the parent, teacher or guardian when you step away from a situation. You know, I introduced that one because about four years ago we were all at a brewery and like apple orchard not far from us and one of my sons, my younger son, met some other kid on the property and, and they just like ran off and it was terrifying. We couldn't find them and we didn't know like it was, it was terrifying. And so from that day forward, I had introduced the always tell a parent, guardian or teacher if you're going to step away from a situation. And I think that just, is a good thing to just repeat over and over again to your kids so they remember it. And then of course, I love you, I love you is a big one, right? So the only other thing that we do with the kids or I do with the kids is after we do the 13 things, I say, hey boys, you know, you can be anything you want to be when you grow up and your dad is going to support you as long as you do it for yourself and nobody else. And then I say, what's it going to take? And they say courage. And I say, what is courage? And they say, being afraid and doing it anyway as long as it's for the good. And then I sing them a song and they go to bed. You know, I've heard that the information that we consume or that we absorb right before we go to bed stays with us. And so that's why I've taken such a strategic approach on how I communicate with my sons at bedtime. I love my sons more than anything on the planet, and I did not have that kind of relationship with my father. It means the world to me to know that my sons love me a lot, and I love them back. And I pour everything into those two kids. And so if you're a parent or an expecting parent or you want to be a parent one day, bedtime ritual is special. My sons are going to remember those 13 things for the rest of their lives. They are going to remember them, and whether or not they apply them all the time is TBD. But I guarantee you, when my sons are 35 years old and I'm 70 or whatever, 35, 20 years from now, so I won't be 70, I'll be 65. I will. I could be across the room, and I'm going to say, boys, give me the 13. They're going to rattle them right off, and they're going to share them with their sons. And that's how. That's how you make an impact. Happy holidays, y'. All. I appreciate you tuning into this podcast, and if this one struck a chord with you, share it with someone who you think might be down to listen. I love you. I appreciate you. Until the next one. Peace.