54 Growing up in a Persian single-dad home in the U.S.A. with Shadi Almassizadeh

“The best advice I can give myself as a dad is enjoy every minute, you never get those back and don’t take them for granted.” Shadi Almassizadeh on DADicated.com  Shadi is the VP of architecture and engineering at Disney, he was born in Iran and grew up in America from age 4. His parents had an arranged marriage that failed so from the age 7 he was raised by his single dad. He is married to Kristi, and they have two children, Kensi (5) and Logan (8).  In the session Shadi shares his crazy life story and experiences that have moulded him into the dad that he is today. He talks about growing up in a single-parent Persian home in the US, and the impact this had on his youth decisions to ensure a lasting marriage. We talk about culture, exposing your kids to all religions and good principles, and how our partners enable us to be a better parent. Shadi has an amazing story with so many pleasant outcomes and lessons learned - as a dad as well as an executive of 20+ years.  The most powerful takeaways for me as a dad were:  Expose my children to as many different cultures and learnings as possible.  Make a point of using technology positively.  Create family traditions and break bread together often.  “Children are smart. They are as smart as you will let them be so to enable them and let them make their own assessments and listen to them.” Shadi Almassizadeh on DADicated.com  To book Philipp as a keynote speaker on “Empowering Dads & Facilitating Family Success” reach out via www.dadicated.com.  GUEST (Shadi Almassizadeh):  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shadi-almassizadeh/  Philipp Hartmann (host):  Philipp's Website: www.philipp-hartmann.de  Philipp on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipphartmann2