Corn or You

Stoic Quote of the Week

Believe me, it is better to understand the balance sheet of one's own life than of the corn trade.

-Seneca

What I learned this week:

Chasing the next thing is awesome! And so is feeling busy, you know, getting a lot of things done. Both provide a great sense of pride to me for some reason. Probably because in my younger days in the Army, it was a badge of honor to demonstrate how dedicated you were by how late you were in the office. It also became a bragging right, "Man, I was here until 2000 last night." Aka, look how important I am because I was here for 16 hours. Obviously, this unit would fall apart without this guy putting in the work. The irony is that the Army is the absolute epitome of next man up. Whether it is in combat, end of service, or change of jobs. The Army has survived because it is always next man up. No man is so important to the success of the unit that it cannot move on and succeed without that one soldier, NCO, or officer. There is always someone to step in and take over. If that holds true, then why is it so important to spend 16 hours a day and weekends in a job that will truthfully forget you within a year of your being gone? Why do I find myself chasing the next new shiny object because I had some spare time? What is it about being busy that makes me feel important? Busy doesn't equal success. Busy only equals busy. The other dilemma is that busy equals business or work. What if busy equals time alone for self-care and mindfulness? What if busy equals family time? There is nothing wrong with being busy. The question we have to ask ourselves is, what kind of busy do I want to be? The one that is forgotten or the one that creates a legacy. Know what is important in your life and let that be your busy.

Planning thought of the week:

How many strategic partners do you have? I see too many businesses try to operate the same way that Alphas do. I got this, and I don't need any help. Too many people struggle for the answer and wear the struggle like a badge of honor. That same attitude flows into the culture of their team and the culture of their plans. (Yes, plans have a culture.) When you sit down to write your business plan for the next five years of operations, do you involve outside partners? Experts who have been there done that? You should. Incorporate the expertise of others into your plans. Many times, those others are outside of your team.

Business idea I heard about or thought of:

I'm not sure if Walden Lam got the idea from Monday Moments or not (If you know Walden, please connect me.) because Walden is the CEO of Upspun, and clothing company that uses your own 3D avatar to make custom clothes! If you are an avid reader of Monday Moments, you will remember that was a business idea here a few years back. It goes to show you if you have a good idea to solve a problem, you may think you are in a blue ocean all alone, but you can rest assured that someone else has had the same idea. The implementation may be different, but you are solving the same problem. Upsun just closed a Series A round of $14M which tells me they are doing pretty good with their business model and solving the problem. If you want to learn more about Upsun, here is Walden's video about his company, video.

Veteran opportunity of the week:

Together We Served (TWS) has created a veteran's life story prompt, which I love. There are fifteen questions ranging from what influenced you to serve to what advice you'd pass along to new service members. This is a really cool way to capture your military experiences and leave a legacy for others to learn from your experience.

Someone I met this week:

I spent some time with one of my old bosses, Jay Jesse. Jay is one of those guys that loves to help people and build organizations. When I was working with Jay, he was the CEO of a software company that he was one of the founders of. He had a great exit, or in VC terms, a successful exit, and now spends his time helping other startups grow to the level that his business did, with $150M and 800 employees. It's always fun to catch up with Jay and get his perspective on what's happening in our local startup ecosystem here in Colorado Springs, and there is a lot. Keep an eye out for Jay on The Cam & Otis Show in the next few weeks.

Link to current The Cam & Otis Show podcast episode Scott Reib - America's Legal Coach | Cam & Otis Show Ep. #274.

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