Sometimes pulling back is what you need to move forward as a father, a husband and a man.
Will Greenblatt, our Lead Dad of the Week from Toronto, had been speeding ahead for much of his life – as a successful child actor, as an entrepreneur running a language school in China, and after he met his wife, as a storytelling coach in his native Canada.
But each time he made a transition it was on the heels of tragedy. He lost interest in being an actor after his younger brother died in a freak canoe accident when they were teenagers. He left China with a horrible back injury after years of not coming to terms with his brother’s death. And at his coaching business’s peak, in 2022, he had such a lucrative year that he invested heavily in bringing on more coaches.
“Then the corporate culture around training crashed,” he said. “My daughter was born, and I was working at 30 per capacity. I had to fire two Indian employees who were dependent on this job for their immigration status. The other coaches struggled.”
“I was learning to become a Dad, my wife was suffering through having had a really tough delivery. So, I scaled everything back to what can I handle – speaking on stages and coaching people.”
Now his wife Sarah has the more stable job and Will is the Lead Dad, building his schedule around what the family needs.
“We alternate picking her up and dropping her off,” he said. “My wife has a full-time job. She works from home 4 days a week, but she can’t say no meetings today. I can say I need the morning off.”
For other dads struggling with the weight of work and the expectations of fatherhood, Will has three pieces of advice. One, don’t shun couples therapy; it helped him learn how to communicate more effectivity. Two, accept that you might not have a model for the father you want to be: “I had to say what I wanted to be. My parents were divorced. I had to stop comparing myself to what I saw growing up.” And three, build a care community. They live where they live because both sets of grandparents are close by. “We have a great network. That’s how kids are meant to be raised.”
With the couple welcoming another child this month, we say welcome, Will, to The Company of Dads.
