How do you define being at the top of your professional career?
Adam Ringgenberg, our Lead Dad of the Week from Dallas, was working for a Texas billionaire and running his own team within a successful investment group. After three years, he said: “I concluded the view wasn’t worth it anymore and quit.”
His wife Jess was a successful biotech sales executive whose workload was skyrocketing. He opted to become a Lead Dad focusing all of his time on his family. They have two sons.
“People thought I was crazy,” he said. “My wife is better at her job than I am at anything. We paid the house off when I quit, to reduce overhead to a minimum. There wasn’t much of a plan.”
That was 2019 and he was comfortable and confident in his role. His wife was thriving at work and all was going well, even through the Covid lockdown.
Recently, his wife started her own consulting firm for mothers at work, called Elixr Coaching. He’s working as the chief operating officer in the background, but at the same time he thought he could get back to paid work to cover some of the financial overhead. Their kids are now 6 and 9.
“After the career hiatus to take care of my kids, it’s been challenging for potential employers to make sense of the gap in my employment,” he said. “Even going back to work, being a Lead Dad will still be my highest priority.”
And if it doesn’t work out, he’s found something more rewarding than his past career in the leveraged loan business. “My wife is very talented with what she does,” he said. “It only makes sense for me to help her with a business that is helping people. I’m excited to help her bring some humanity to business.”
Stepping up to help at home and to be supportive at work are key tenants of being a Lead Dad. Adam, you embody both precepts in abundance. Welcome to The Company of Dads!
