KISS YOUR...KIDS

If you are a parent, guardian or friend that is participating in the raising of a young person, have you considered what messages—what life lessons, you want to share with them? KISS YOUR…Kids encourages you to consider the value of identifying and documenting lessons of life that you feel are critical for the important people in your life to understand. It contains 57 life lessons in bite-sized, easy to read, thought-provoking chunks, written primarily for the author’s children and family members, but published so that other children (and adults alike) may benefit from the nuggets of wisdom herein: • Use this book for your own benefit, • Give it to someone in your life that you care for, or • Simply use it as a springboard for preparing your own version of life lessons to pass along.

Given my ever present awareness of my kids’ race towards adulthood, not to mention my continued aging and understanding that we are not guaranteed one more day on this earth…I decided I wanted to document all of the key lessons of life that I’d begun teaching my kids, along with those that I’d yet to convey because they were more appropriate at some point in the future, when my kids were a little older. In the event I were unavailable for pep talks or life lessons best suited for a later time in life, these documented key life lessons, this book, would expose them to positions on love, pain, triumph, competition, passion, defeat, humility, work-ethic and humor in a way that I would not be able to share any longer.

Although I was driven by a concern that my kids could go without ever having been exposed to these perspectives, I felt strongly that even if I am to live to 100, I knew I wanted to document some of my core beliefs so that I could give an organized representation of them to my kids in print, for them to take with them when they went on to college and “flew our coop” to start their own lives in adulthood. My hopes are that they’ll reference it periodically, the same way that I periodically still refer to the easy-to-absorb Dale Carnegie books such as “How to Make Friends and Influence People” and “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.” Key messages of life presented in bite sized, thought provoking, chunks.

As I began writing the words to underpin the life lessons that I wanted to document, I quickly began to feel like these messages could be just as helpful to other adults - new parents/guardians, young parents/guardians, aunts, and uncles and close friends alike. I also thought that in reading this information, it might not only equip and empower parents to consider key messages they may want to deliver in their own way to their children, but it might also present some interesting perspectives for them to consider for themselves and potentially alter their own approach to life. There are 57 “life lessons” in this book.

In any event…I know there are many ways you could be spending your time and I’m humbled that you’ve chosen to use a portion of it reading my thoughts. I’m even more hopeful that you find it helpful and conclude that at least one idea touched on within the book has a positive impact on your life, your child’s life, or someone else's life in the world.”

I’ve written business plans, game plans, financial plans, and documented programs for my profession and for non-profit organizations, but I’ve never previously published a book. Among the things I have accomplished in my life, and most importantly relative to the contents within this book, I have contributed to raising two amazing human beings—my daughter Gabriella and my son William. I was born in Bristol, Pennsylvania, and was raised in multiple towns including Bristol, North Cape May, New Jersey, and Levittown, Pennsylvania. I was born to two loving parents who divorced when I was eight. Both parents were always very involved in my life, and each has been instrumental in making me who I am today. I was primarily raised by a single, working mom from the age of eight until she remarried when I was almost 13. To this day, I’ve been fortunate to maintain great relationships with both of my biological parents and two loving step-parents, all of whom have greatly impacted who I am and how I view the world. I did well in school and loved sports and spending time with my family. I played organized soccer as a youngster and continued with football, basketball, baseball, and track through high school. I was captain of my football and basketball teams during my senior year in high school and was fortunate to receive a full scholarship to play football at the University of Delaware. I was a business finance major and started as quarterback for Delaware for four years and was named co-captain my senior year. We finished as the number four rated Division 1-AA team in the country my senior year. I’ve since been humbly inducted into my respective high school and college sports hall of fames. I say humbly because my success would not have been possible without my great teammates and coaches. I’ve been in the enterprise software start-up world for 22-plus years. I’ve had a role in the growth of four software start-up organizations during that time, all of which were either acquired or went public. I thoroughly enjoy having a key role in helping organizations overcome the challenge of figuring out who they are and how best to optimize their business and achieve their goals. Most recently I’d been a ten year ceo and co-owner of ExpenseWatch, Inc., a software organization based just outside of Philadelphia, until deciding to sell the organization in early 2016. I’ve been married for twenty-two years to a girl I started dating in 1987 when we were both 17. My wife Melissa and I have a daughter, Gabriella (16), and son, William (14), and I’m the proud uncle to nephews Jordan, Justin, and Joey, and my niece Samantha. I’ve coached my daughter’s soccer and basketball teams while also coaching my son’s baseball, basketball, and football teams. I’ve proudly participated on the board of directors of three non-profit organizations—two of which were as a founding board member. Enjoying personal activities, friends, family, work, and volunteering is how I spend my time. Enjoying the moment, and those around me, is how I spend my life. This book was written for my daughter, Gabriella, my son, William, my nephews Jordan, Justin, and Joey, and my niece, Samantha. I’ve also been blessed to have six other children in my life that call me Uncle Bill and who I think of as family. They are Jack, Michael, Christopher, and Jack, Mariella, and Nick. To you all, thank you for your love and for giving me the chance to be a part of your life.