Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Erik: Where have your parents been most supportive in your career development?
Richard: I don't think it's possible to do this without having supportive parents, and
I mean emotionally, financially, you know, and on every other, every other level. So
when Moo first got started, I mean I ran up huge bills. You know, I was living in my own
place, so I needed help so, you know, the very basis of things like financially my parents
supported me. But going from a steady job into something that was uncertain required
massive emotional support, and I was, you know, kind of driven on such an incredibly
personal basis. Driven, you know, like compelled, really, to do it. And it must have seemed
mad. It must have seemed insane. Why are you gonna go and do this? But the support I got
from my parents and from my family in general was incredible. I would never have been able
to do it without that because it's just so uncertain. And also, it's something that it's
a leap of faith, right? A completely untested idea, product, new space, somebody who had
never done it before, and my parents said 'yeah, go for it, go do it, do what makes
you happy.' So I was really, really lucky in that. It would have been -- it would have
been impossible without it.
Erik: How did you manage the communication as you were going through that process?
Richard: Well, you know, share what's appropriate. You know, when it's -- I think you don't wanna
make them worry. The worst thing is worrying parents. So, you know, I definitely provided
the good news first and limited the bad news, but I keep them posted obviously on how the
business is doing. Today it's all good news now. They're quite shocked sometimes when
they realize how many people are in the company or what we're doing, whatever, but they've
been amazing. And, you know, it's important to note the rest of the family. I have a brother
and a sister, and my brother actually works with the company. He's our -- he runs our
customer services, so should you ever have a problem, you are speaking to a Moross when
you're emailing customer services. You know, things get escalated to me, fairly frequently
if we're having problems, and it's nice to know that someone that obviously I trust implicitly
is looking after our customers, that's really important. And my sister is a very, very successful
young designer. So also helps inform a lot the decisions that -- well, it certainly helps
inform my view of the world through design, so. But they've been -- they've all been great.
Yeah, we're really lucky.