Just Enjoy It

It’s almost Christmas which means it’s generally a slow week and one of my coworkers said “wow, I got all my work done already and I don’t know what to do”

After a brief flashback, of being in a startup with zero resources, with dishes piled up in my sink, in my cold apartment with no microwave, and thinking that every second is burning money, I gave him a thumbs up and said

“Just Enjoy It”.

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All my life, I’ve dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur, then I did it, and then I stopped being one.

Being an entrepreneur is really hard. Every day you feel like you’re dying, walking on a tight rope juggling chain saws across a burning building. Smile and post something nice though, you don’t want anyone to think you’re miserable. Cash is literally your blood and then you think about hiring someone and you’re like “wow, I’m giving people a lot of my blood”. All you think about is your stockpile dwindling and you make bad decisions based on your burn rate. I think there’s a point where you get out of that feeling, but I never reached that.

Of course, it’s not that bad. That’s the lowest you’ll feel. The highest feels like you’re walking on sunshine. The euphoric nights of creating food samples for that demo in your uncommercialized kitchen at your parent’s house and having people enjoy them is a great feeling. Having someone accept your offer for your product or service and actually paying you money whether service or product is an amazing feeling that I can’t describe. You feel like you don’t deserve it, but actually, you do. It feels like you can multiply that by 2, or 10 or, a million. It’s that easy, right?

I still think being an entrepreneur is a beautiful profession because building something from nothing is literally the American dream. Those that can do it, I respect so much. That’s why I want to help as many entrepreneurs I can, not to make the mistakes I did. Everyone should start a business at least once.

When I was an entrepreneur, I never felt like one, but now that I’m not, people say I am.

So I’ll accept it.

Heck, I might even celebrate it.

Issues with Entrepreneur Culture

My biggest issue being an entrepreneur is the inability to celebrate. It’s not sexy to celebrate unless you post it on social media. We celebrate to look human, but it’s a lie. Entrepreneurs hate celebrating because there’s way too much to do.

When we got the Perdue deal at Better Meat Co, which changed the perception of our startup from zero to hero, we were all invited to the office to celebrate. I thought I was going to get lunch or something but I got a vegan chocolate brownie that was really dry. Then, back to work. It was then I realized that the more we would succeed, the more we’d have to work. Of course, not all companies are like this, but it’s a common ethos for startups. Because it’s sexy to work hard.

I’m not a hard worker, I work efficiently because I don’t like to work. I consider podcasting, networking, and business dinners as play and as we grew the startup, I would be doing less playing.

I also have some issues with the perception of Public Relations and Press. Being in the weeds, it’s very easy to alter the perception of a company to look better than it’s doing. Forbes 30 under 30 is a decent example of who you know because it’s recommendation based. You get 5 seconds of fame, and then you can put it on your LinkedIn header. Actually, I’m just really jealous that I probably will never be on the Forbes 30 under 30. Congrats to all of my friends.

Once you realize that the world is so big and empires rise and fall within months, then perhaps it really doesn’t matter what people do or say. Timing is literally everything and you can leave on a high note or be completely decimated because of one mistake. Selling a company can be considered an accomplishment or a failure but you’ll never know unless you understand the whole story. Bad things aren’t always as bad as they seem. I would know.

What Now?

I needed a change so when WeWork offered me the chance to move to Austin to escape everything, or to reset, it didn’t take long for me to decide. The decision was sprung at the right place at the right time. Like most things.

I now make an extremely comfortable salary, live in the heart of downtown and can still enough save money to invest in my future or blow it all off on a really dumb project. I can walk to work, and my job is to network and eat free meals. I don’t have to worry about buying a lyft instead of walking and I can use the heater when I’m cold. I got a studio apartment on the highest apartment floor I’ve ever been on (the third floor out of three floors) and I have a microwave now.

I hope I’ll never think of wanting more I think that’s the curse of humankind, is to always want more and never enjoy what you have enough.

If things go bad, I’ve been through worse. If in some random situation, I lose my job, I guess I’ll start my own company or something.

But for now I’ll just enjoy it.

PS: I failed my new years resolution, so 2020’s resolution is to just enjoy life a little.