‘CEO Dadism’ victim finds relief in self-deprecation
BY JULIA M. SCOTT, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 04/16/2007 08:59:26 PM PDT
WOODLAND HILLS – Tom Stern has been in recovery for five years, two months and 25 days. His addiction? CEO Dadism – when workaholic business executives treat family like employees.
Stern, 51, beat his addiction by creating a comic strip poking fun at himself. In one comic the main character, Frank Pitt, considers rewarding his second child’s stellar grades by promoting her to first born.
Now, with fresh successes – the strip is the basis for a new book and series of animated shorts to run on CNBC – Stern’s micromanaging tendencies are flaring up.
“That’s the thing with CEO Dadism,” Stern said from behind the desk of his immaculate home office. “You never fully recover.”
Stern tames his dark side by volunteering with recovering drug addicts and by following a strict regime of pushing his two daughters, ages 4 and 10, on the swing set in the backyard of his Woodland Hills home.
He still works 50 to 60 hours each week, but he does it around his daughters’ schedules. Used to be that wasn’t the case, as Stern highlights in one comic in which Frank Pitt gets a Father’s Day card from his son:
“Dad, you never come to my soccer games and you treat your customers better than your Advertisement own family … but I guess I still love you,” the card reads.
“These are your words?” Pitt asks.
“Mom helped,” the son replies.
Stern’s life-altering epiphany came on Jan. 23, 2002. He was watching a Lakers game on television when he decided to fulfill a promise to his wife, Lisa, and feed the dog. When he got to the dog bowl in the back of the house, he heard muffled screams coming from the garage. Stern opened the garage door and saw armed men punching his struggling wife. One pointed a gun at him, but he stayed calm.
“What do you want?” Stern said.
“The ring,” the man said.
Stern told Lisa to give them her diamond engagement ring and they fled with the jewel.
But the life-and-death moment was not what changed Stern. Instead, it was how his daughter, who was then 5, reacted to the crisis. Unlike Stern, who was frantically calling 911, she calmly fetched her mom a glass of water and a towel to wipe her bloody face.
The little girl’s focus on her family struck Stern, who vowed to remake his life.
Stern’s new book, “CEO Dad: How to Avoid Getting Fired by Your Family,” retells his epiphany with a heavy dose of fiction and funnies. It was published earlier this month by Davies-Black Publishing based in Mountain View.
Laura Simonds, director of marketing and sales at Davies-Black, thinks the book will appeal to top executives, their families and the employees they terrorize.
The underlying theme doesn’t worry Simonds because workaholic parents are a reality.
“I think it’s something that families have had in the back of their minds for a long time,” Simonds said. “It’s one of those unspoken things that Mom or Dad just has to be that way. But in their heart of hearts they are screaming, `We want you. We want you back.”‘
Five one-minute animated shorts based on the strip are slated to air on CNBC in June. A spokesman for the network said they are “in talks” with Stern but declined to confirm details.
Bob Balaban, who co-starred in “For Your Consideration” and “Best In Show,” is directing the shorts. He said he signed onto the project because it passed his three criteria: It was “innovative, funny and good.”
The main character, Frank Pitt, “has no balance whatsoever” between work and life, Balaban said. “But he keeps trying. And I think that’s an inherently funny concept.”
