Why this question?
I grew up where rules were impossible to ignore.
I grew up in South Africa under apartheid, where government rules determined where people could live, learn and work based on the color of their skin. I later completed compulsory military service and spent a decade in the fire service.
Those experiences left me with a question that followed me across countries, careers, marriage, fatherhood and entrepreneurship: Who makes the rules?
Eventually I realized the most persistent rules are not always written in law. They are the invisible instructions we carry about who we should be, what success should look like, whose approval we need and what we are allowed to choose.