What I Learned Growing Up with a Successful Father – Advice & Tips

My father, Luca Chioda, has been my mentor ever since I could remember. The opportunities I had in life were because of him and I will never be able to make it up to him. His outlook on life and his approach have been the standards of how he raised me, basically making sure he created a mini version of himself. By having followed his advice and habits, I can honestly say he raised a badass daughter. His advice and opinions have always meant the outmost to me, and without his constant feedback and support, I would not have achieved the things I did. 

Since before I was even at an age where I had to worry about what to do with my life, he would explain and teach me things about his job as a businessman. He was (and still is) very passionate about what he did and speaking about it to me made him that much happier. As I started getting older, I got more and more interested, asking him more questions, going to his office, and talking to his coworkers. Because of my creativity and interest in “mostly” advertising and why companies did the things they did, he always said I would be great in Marketing. 

After being mentored by him I decided to follow his footsteps and go to business school. And you guessed it, with a major in Marketing and Sales. I also feel the need to clarify that he never forced business on me. His passion simply developed into my own. I have always considered myself very lucky about having this relationship with my father. He has always been supportive of my decisions, but ever since I started showing interest in business, he has made it his goal to teach me everything he can. With this motivation, confidence, and passion, he made me an independent and confident future businesswoman. 

Work & Education

Now that you have heard all about the type of man he is, it’s best to dive into who he is and what he has done. For starters, he did not go to university. He built his success from his skills and motivations. He started his work experience at an electrical equipment company from 1992-2001 as an Analyst Programmer and later became Technical Supply Chain Manager. After, he had been loyal to a Swiss multinational food and drink processing corporation. Within this company, he changes positions and was given many responsibilities.

1. 2002-2008: Supply Chain Manager & Country Business Manager Italy (Milan, Italy)
2. 2009-2012: Supply Chain Manager Europe (Warsaw, Poland)
3. 2012-2013: Business Development Manager (Dubai, UAE)
4. 2013-2015: CEO Lebanon (Beirut, Lebanon)
5. 2015-2021: CEO Thailand (Bangkok, Thailand)

From 2021 to present, he became CEO of a small water company in Piuro, Italy.

Although he did not have a degree, with his hard work he was able to able to take part in courses and get his MBA.

1. MIP Politecnico di Milano – Executive Programs in Supply Chain
2. London Business School- Leading the Nestlé Way & Nestlé Leadership Program
3. SDA Bocconi – Executive Programs in Supply Chain
4. Henley Business School – Master of Business Administration

His advice has always been very important and helpful to me. Therefore, I decided to share some of his advice with all of you. This can be applied both in a working environment and everyday life.

1. Importance of Networking

Networking is the most important piece of advice given. This is something I am currently working on myself. Creating a network can be very hard, and if you’re like me, knowing where to start can be confusing. When you are starting off it’s very important to start conversations, give advice, and pitch ideas. Sending a LinkedIn invite with a small text explaining who you are can go a long way. Whenever you receive a message or email, it’s very important to respond out of curtesy, even if you don’t know how to help or what to say.

Once you have built a solid network you can start getting a bit ‘lazier’ so to say. It’s now important to build relationships rather than creating new ones. Building trust, having good conversations, and simply reaching out to discuss opportunities and plans.

Coming from my father, he has admitted being more passive and sat back when it comes to networking. He holds positive relationships and stays in contact often. Yet, unless he has a need, he prefers to take it easy and not actively try to converse and grow the network. 

2. Teamwork

In business and likely in your day-to-day life, working with other people will have to happen. If teamwork is not your thing you will unfortunately have to work hard to make it your thing. Companies love to see collaboration skills and would be more impressed to see you have done lots of teamwork, than have succeeded on your own.

Sometimes taking part in group work is not easy, I have lots of first-hand experience from my university. It can be difficult for those who’ve been doing it for years. For example, my father was always an individualist, who preferred to do things alone just because he was able to. With the development of his responsibilities on the job, he realized he could not continue the “one-man-show” if he wanted to succeed, as he wouldn’t have been able to do everything on his own. As the leader, he expected a lot from others, but did it in an empowering and motivated way. Honesty is a big part of teamwork, and it’s crucial that trust is built within the team.

3. Asking for Help

There should not be any shame in asking for help. There is no use being stuck on a problem where you can’t find a solution. Chances are, someone else can help you, and teach you things for future times. With asking for help, also comes the personal admission that you have faults. For some, this does not come easy, which is a big reason why they don’t ask for help. I know this might sound cheesy, but everyone has faults… even a CEO.

He said it’s important to be realistic about personal strengths and weaknesses, because in order to fix the weaknesses you have to be aware and honest with yourself. A philosophy he uses is “whoever does nothing is never wrong”. This means that if you work hard and accomplish a lot, mistakes are inevitable. Nothing to be ashamed of, that’s how you learn.

Once you are able to accept your faults and weaknesses, asking for help will come a lot easier. You will also realize that by asking for help you learn more and make closer relationships with others. In the ever-developing world, trends, people, and customers are always changing. Asking and observing is key to stay up-to-date and understand changes.

4. Be Patient/Be Open-Minded

When working for a business, things can get very stressful from time to time and working with others may not always be smooth sailing. This is why being patient is very important. It’s important to think about others and think to yourself, “why is this not being done effectively?” or “why is this difficult for them?” Sometimes lending out a helping hand can have a better end result and even build more trust.

My father always said,

“Being rude to speed things up is not going to get you anywhere. If anything, people become scared of you and will be reluctant to come to you”

Honestly, I’ve seen my fair share of him not having applied this. This came from his result-oriented mindset. I had seen that being impatient gets people to do things faster because you are putting pressure on them. However, once he started reflecting and changed his approach, it became very evident the quality of the end result was much higher. People were also more friendly, and if there was a problem or they were unsure what to do, they wouldn’t hold back asking for help.

He achieved this by changing his “treat everyone the same” attitude. He used to treat everyone the same and use the same approach. However, once he realized everyone has different ways of working and different motivating factors, he stopped going against them and rather worked with them. He learned to deal with his frustrations and take his employees motivations more into consideration. With this, he adapted a motivating working method, where employees would be motivated rather than stressed.

5. Personal Branding

How you express yourself and the impression you leave on others is very important. This impression can be from an in-person meeting, or even your social media presence. And trust me, companies will look and find your social media accounts, so post to impress.

You must show the company what you bring to the table. Find your unique points and make them known, showcase them as much as you can and use supporting evidence to show why those are your strengths. Showing who you are, how your personality is, and what you do in your free time may not seem that important. But it is. Mention your experiences, goals, and motivations. Also very important, what values do you share with the brand.

These were the top 5 things I learned from growing up with a successful father based on his advice and tips to make it in the real world. I hope his advice is as useful to you as it was to me. I will be happy to share more.

For more information, click here to see Luca Chioda’s LinkedIn.

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