The 3 levels of work: guiding your kids beyond just making money

“Papi, when I grow up, I’m going to work and make a lot a lot of money.” expressed Juniper.

“That’s great.” I encouraged. “But money isn’t the only reason to work.”

“But I thought you work to make money.”

“That’s true. If I don’t work to make money, we wouldn’t have a house, a car, or even food on the table. But there are other reasons to work too.”

“Like what?” Juniper dug in.

I loved basketball as a 10-year old kid. Yes, I loved the sport, but what I loved most of all were Sunday games because I’d get to see my mom and dad together. When they got divorced, basketball served as the weekly family glue, barely keeping us together.

Then one Saturday practice, the coach announced that we would buy matching orange shorts for our team uniforms and asked us all to contribute $20. The following game, the entire team had matching neon Orange glowing jerseys and shorts, but one kid stood out like a sore thumb with old, worn out blue shorts. That kid was me. I played the entire season as the odd kid out.

Why? Because my mom and dad always fought about money. I felt that if I asked them for money for the shorts, then they would fight again, and they would stop coming together to my Sunday basketball games.

I decided then and there as a 10-year old kid that when I grew up, I would never lack money; I would never fight with my family about our finances; I would be rich, and buy my future children anything that they needed.

Unknowingly, at a very young age, I developed a life mission.

I’ve been thinking about the interplay between happiness and purpose when I ran into this post on X that really resonated with me:

I personally know many people that are deeply unhappy because they’re selfishly chasing hedonism.

It’s good that my children learned that money is necessary in life, but I don’t want them to think that money = happiness or that buying more stuff = happiness. I believe that to have a truly fulfilling life, a person must develop a grand life mission that is bigger than oneself.

As a child with blue shorts on the basketball court, I unknowingly developed a life mission to bring my family financial freedom and stability, which became the main driver for my hard work in school and my career. It drove me to work nights and weekends while others were partying; it drove me to forego TV and Netflix in favor of learning and networking.

I want my children to similarly develop their grand mission in life.

How I taught my children about the 3 levels of work

When Juniper asked me why I work if it’s not just for money, I decided it was time to teach them about the 3 levels of work.

Level 1: Work for Money

The first level of work is to work just for money. It’s what the majority of people in this world do — they go to school, get good grades, get a good job, and try to invest and get promoted to make more money and improve their lifestyle. How do you think we can go to vacations in Japan or Peru? It’s because I worked hard and made more money. This is the bare minimum that we can all do, but the Loayza family does not do the bare minimum. Although a job in general is a positive, a job that you don’t enjoy can lead to some negatives: it can be boring, tiresome, and could lead to unhappiness later in life. When you get your first job, the goal should not just be money, but more importantly, to learn, grow, and put you on a path towards work that you enjoy.

Level 2: Work that you enjoy

Which brings us to the next level of work — work that you love and enjoy. This is an absolutely great place to be.

“What do you like to do?” I asked Juniper.

“I like to draw.”

“How about you Kimbal?”

“I like to draw” (copying Juniper, haha).

And so, I painted a picture for Juniper and Kimbal about artistic work that can make them money: drawing paintings, writing books, architecting buildings, or even designing products.

“How would you feel if people paid you for your drawings?” I asked them.

“Good!” they shouted.

It seems so simple, but that’s the best way to start. Teaching children about these concepts is about consistency. Every time they do something that they enjoy, be it rock climbing, playing the piano, reading a book, or even watching a movie, I point out that these businesses and products all have an owner and employees that do the work.

Although Level 2 can lead to a happy life, I want my children to not just be happy, but to be fulfilled as well.

Level 3: Work that fulfills your mission

The highest level of work is work that fulfills your life mission. This of course is the hardest to achieve, so it take proactive, intentional effort to find and achieve it.

And before I go further, I want to be clear that a life mission can come in many different scopes: there are grand missions like making life a multi planetary species (Elon Musk), and then there are humble, but no less important on the individual level missions like raising a successful family or living a Godly life.

What’s important is that a life mission is not about the self, but rather, how you can positively impact others.

Here is how I teach my 7 and 5 year old about what a mission is and how they can find their mission:

A mission is your big life plan. We make plans everyday: for example, today we made a plan to eat breakfast, take a shower, go to the library, and then go to our Friendsgiving.

But instead of a plan just for today, imagine a plan for where you want to be in 30 years.

How old will you be in 30 years? It’s crazy to think that far ahead, but a mission is so big that it takes many years of hard work to achieve.

And there’s more. A mission is not about you; it’s about how you want to positively impact others.

For example, how do you think Mami and Papi feel when you clean your room without us asking you to do it or when you help us cook? We feel really happy and thankful.

Well, how does it make you feel that we’re happy and thankful? It makes you feel pretty good, right? It makes you feel proud of yourself.

That’s called positively impacting others.

So let’s take your love of drawing. How do you think that can positively impact others?

“I can make a lot a lot of drawings!” said Juniper.

Haha, sure, that would be great. But remember, a mission is about positively impacting others. So, one way to do that would be to have a mission about bringing a smile to millions of children around the world through your art.

Lastly, don’t feel pressure to make your mission so big that it has to impact millions of people. If your life mission is to raise a healthy, loving, Godly family with lots of kids of your own, then that’s more than enough.

If today’s lesson about teaching your kids about the 3 level of work gave you a valuable insight, or even a little validation, pass it along to another brave parent on this journey. The best compliment you can give is spreading the word about Dad Smarter Not Harder (this email list).

Lastly, I’m building an entrepreneurial course for pre-teens and teens. My goal is to help my children dream up tech, e-commerce, or creator businesses. If you want your kids in on that action, shoot me a note!

See you next Sunday!

God bless,

Jun Loayza