We spoke to several professionals and found out what was the greatest lesson they learnt from their dads.

What we took away from the responses, was that fathers tend to not go by the book.

They made up their own rules and broke a few other rules, but always had their children’s backs, even if they did not know it at the time:

ARTHI SANPATH: My dad instilled in me, maybe even unknowingly, that I could do anything I wanted to do and part of that was not treating me like daddy’s little princess.

Teaching me to fish and catch ghost crabs and how spider ants caught their prey and reading a newspaper so much of it has influenced the person I am today.

FARRAH FRANCIS: My dad taught me about being open-minded and never to worry about what the world thought.

RIVONIA K NAIDU-HOFFMEESTER: My love for writing was inspired by my dad RD Naidu. Through his activism and legacy, my dad taught me the one simple truth to life that we often forget, and that is to treat everyone with fairness and kindness.

I know we are all human and we fail in this, but I try every day to remember this lesson as I interact with different people.

ANISHA TICKA: My dad was brought up in an old traditional manner. He loved his family but could not show affection. To this day, it is hard for him to give his kids a hug, but when he talks about us he cries and that shows me the emotion.

This made me shower my kids with affection. I am so lucky to have my dad around. He is 72 and I hope we will have him around for many more years.

FILI Göcer: My dad once explained to me what diplomacy was.

“Let’s say your friend is wearing trousers that are really ugly and does not fit him at all. You don’t just go there and say that he looks bad in those trousers.

“You say, ‘nice trousers you’re wearing there but you know what? The trousers you were wearing yesterday looked even better on you than those’.”

MATTHEW SAVIDES: How to laugh. The day he had a five-hour operation to remove a massive piece of cancer-infected colon that would eventually kill him, he and his twin brother told nurses the only difference between them is that “I’m a colon, he’s a semi-colon”.

Even in the deepest tragedy, life is better laughing.

ANDY KERR: How to change a plug! I remember Christmas Eve of ’94 and crying my face off because my dad told me Santa Claus would not bring me presents if I didn’t learn to change the plug on the Christmas lights.

I am highly proficient with electrical work years later and saved so much money on electricians over the years too.

STEVEN STEAD: I had a difficult relationship with my father.

But he managed to teach me how to drive a car rather well.

Despite being a fighter pilot and always being quick to anger, he taught me how to be a defensive driver: always anticipate the stupidest and most aggressive moves from your fellow man on the road. His teaching has paid off.

I am still alive despite the odds and I am not just talking about driving a car. I learnt from him, without his knowledge, that all He-Men have feet of clay.

They need props and propaganda to survive.

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