Sixteen years of business feels surreal. Traditionally, sweet sixteen is your coming of age party, when you’re finally entering adulthood. Some days, it feels like we’ve just begun, and others, it feels like we have enough seasoning to cook up a 10-course meal.
Either way we look at it, here we are – in the sweetest year yet.
When I think about our business anniversary, a few things come to mind:
1. Have the balls to take a leap. I mentioned it last year; I mention it every year around this time. I didn’t think I had the knowledge, capacity or gumption to own a business. But Mario was the bird in my ear that did not stop chirping. And so we left. We leapt. We planned, and while we took plenty of nose dives, and I have taken plenty since he went to go soar, we kept going, and will continue to. It’s the beauty of the jump. So, today, I celebrate all the leaps, and I encourage you to be willing to take yours. Am I telling everyone to start a business? I am not. Am I saying up and quit your job without a dream and a plan? Not that either.
I am, however, saying that we have a lot of opportunities to leap in our lives, and I implore you to be brave. Take on that physical feat, give the boss a new idea, put an adventure on your calendar, be bold to start a new relationship or make a new connection, do the big, audacious thing that you’ve always wanted to, but never knew if you could. Fear gets in the way of leaps a lot, but fear is a liar. And like a quote I love and adore says, “Fear is the only thing that gets smaller the closer you run to it.”
2. Every obstacle takes you to a new video game level to navigate and beat. Here’s the thing — there will always get to be a next level. One of my mentors recently gave me this analogy. You don’t stop having challenges. You beat those challenges, beat the boss at the end of the level, and then get to the next one. New challenges, new environmental elements to overcome, new path trajectories, new invincible powers you’ve achieved. But we still get to navigate through the mud. Something flipped in my mind recently where I’ve come to a peace knowing that if we mess up with a media segment, lose a client, communicate in a way we shouldn’t, don’t hear back about an opportunity — it’s not bad…none of it is. It’s this pretty incredible opportunity to grow, to learn, and to become the next best version of ourselves, of our team, of our company. Then, we’re better suited to serve the next client, support the next team member, deliver the next impactful message to the world. Because we GREW.
I just listened to a podcast with Kobe, and the interviewer asked him how he felt about losing. He said, “It’s exciting. It means you have different ways to get better. There are certain things that you can figure out that you can take advantage of and certain weaknesses that were exposed that you need to shore up. I mean, it sucks to lose, but at the same time, the answer is there. You get the information from losing more than from winning. There are answers there when you win, too. So, it’s a constant. It’s exciting when you win; it’s exciting when you lose, because the process should be exactly the same as long as you find things you could have done better. The hardest thing is to face that stuff, but I think it’s the best way to prove your value in your work.”
So, yeah, screw up, and use it as an opportunity to get closer to that next win. Again, not only in business ownership, but in anything you do. You GET to learn from experience, and what a damn good teacher experience is.
3. “Who’s Got It Better Than Us? NOBODY!” I just had a very belated birthday coffee with one of my very favorite humans on the planet. He told me a story about the Harbaugh brothers learning this quotable sentiment from their dad, Jack Harbaugh. Ever since that coffee, I have thought of this proclamation with nearly everything I’ve come across, faced, experienced, or celebrated.
If you know me in the slightest, you know I love gratitude. To me, it is the way. So, this sentiment hit very well with me. LOOK AROUND YOU – yes, we are facing tough times in a variety of ways in our country and worldwide, but how fortunate are we to get to live the lives we get to live, to build businesses, to create relationships, to make an impact, to watch others grow, to work with humans who make us think, to fall and get back up, to love, to be loved, to find joy in the littlest things, to sit in the mud so that we know what the sky feels like.
Sweet sixteen is going to be the sweetest, I already know it – come what may. The past 15 have been, too. Sometimes bittersweet, but always looking forward to the next sweet moment. Business ownership is a gift. I feel blessed to have had a business partner & best bud who helped make and mold me into who I am today, grateful to have a super squad who understands the purpose of making humans feel valued, soul-filled for every unique human I’ve come in contact because of this path, and appreciative of every lesson along the way. Who’s got it better than me? Nobody.
I hope you get to ask yourself that same question today — and I hope you get answer in the exact same way. Now, let’s go taste that sweetness.
