Companiesandme

Today I heard a story worth sharing about a Bay Area woman whose life's work changed upon having her first child in a way that many of us could learn from.

It wasn't long ago that Sandy Eng was working as a network engineer for a large Bay Area tech company, where she applied her background in math and computers. Back then, she might have spoken with some affection for the challenge of her work in developing communications protocols, but when she had her first child, she found new outlets for her problem solving skills.

The shoes she was buying for her son Kiefer, she realized, were made for adults, not kids. First were the designs, which were positioned for adults to see, facing outward, not the kids who wore them. Second, they didn't fit chubby kid feet and were a pain to put on. So Sandy decided to figure out how to make a better shoe and, in the process, discovered a new passion within herself in shoemaking. 

Today, Sandy's company in Milpitas, Scooter Bees, is approaching its 3-year anniversary and makes shoes that are made for kids, with flaps that fold to tell a right side up story to kids and that actually fit kids' feet, in their various sizes. She also wanted to sell them the right way, by ensuring that they were made entirely chemical-free, from recycled materials, and traded fairly (the shoes are hand-crafted by artisan shoemakers in Peru). Sandy now works with moms, likely a very different demographic than it was as an engineer. Moms are some of the best multi-taskers, she says, and they've taught her to balance her work, business, and family, important lessons in our always-on, information overloaded culture.

How do you balance work, business, and family? What inspired you to find this balance?

Note: We recently realized that every day we find ourselves meeting inspiring people who have let their passions lead them to inspiring and new ways to work, which we've decided to start share more regularly here. We received no compensation for this and will never accept money to write. The companies that participate on this site support it through subscriptions, to keep the ads off and quality high, but the decision to participate is theirs, and has nothing to do with what we'll choose to share with you.