How a 5-mile Walk to the Post Office Reminded Me About Patience

I haven’t used it lately, but there’s a nutrition app on my phone that also counts my steps. It says that last Friday I walked 11,715 steps. According to Google, that’s roughly 5.5 miles.?

In the middle of the day, I spent at least 4 hours walking to and from the post office. I ballpark that this accounted for around 11,000 of those steps (approximately 5 miles).

This sounds a little crazy, right? In 2022, why not bike, run, drive, or even Uber the 5 miles to a post office?

Well, I wasn’t just walking. I was pushing what’s called a “basket truck” full of Bold Xchange orders. When filled to the brim, the basket carried 30 boxes. I needed to transport roughly 500 boxes on Friday.?

You can do the math. I wasn’t actually going that far. I was just pushing that basket down one street and through an alley to the back door of the post office over and over again.

Controlling the Controllable

On Tuesday, I shared a LinkedIn post that featured the packages I walked to the post office last Friday (and about 150 more). They were sitting on a loading dock, which likely gives an impression that some big truck backed up to our building and picked up all of them at once. Indeed, that’s how this process should work.

Especially for an early stage company, theory and reality are often far from the same. In theory, it’s best for our team to schedule a package pickup rather than make several trips to any local post office where we’ll absolutely overwhelm the staff.

In reality—at least in our experience—when we tell a carrier that we have dozens or hundreds of packages for pickup, it’s as if they don’t believe us or simply don’t pay attention to the details of our request. The delivery truck that arrives is often too small or already full.?

So what happens next? Practically speaking, the carrier has to send another truck. It might come later in the day. It might come the next day.

I used to lament about the hours I’ve spent doing seemingly impractical and tedious tasks.?????

If you were in my position, what would you have done on Friday?

You could’ve waited for a delivery truck to come at some unknown time. Or you could’ve put on your walking shoes, too.?

Our team chose to control the controllable, ensuring that we stayed on schedule even though that meant we had to do it in a less than ideal way.

Do Things That Don’t Scale?

When I got to the post office for the third or fourth time, the employee that’d been helping me sort packages into the right containers was out back on a smoke break. She chuckled and said, “you’re going to be doing this all day long.” I smirked and replied, “I guess so.”?

At this point, I’d already found a rhythm. I knew that I could load a basket, walk it to the post office, unload it, and walk back to our facility in 12-14 minutes. If I stayed on pace, it’d technically take about half of a normal work day. She didn’t need to know that nuance, though.

By now, I’m sure you’ve said to yourself, “wow, this walking to the post office thing is wildly unsustainable,” and you’re right. I used to lament about the hours I’ve spent doing seemingly impractical and tedious tasks.??

But in the startup world, there’s a common piece of advice to do things in the early days that won’t scale later on.

If we keep satisfying customers, they’ll keep coming back and new customers will join them. Eventually, those satisfied customers will help us generate enough business where the carriers have to take us seriously every time. They’ll always back up their trucks with enough space to the loading dock—nobody on our team will be walking to the post office.

Looking On the Bright Side?

I grew up in Washington, DC. When I was an adult, if the weather was nice on a weekend, it wasn’t uncommon for me to step out of my door in the morning and spend the entire day walking and taking public transit to various places in the city.

Bold Xchange is headquartered in St. Louis. It’s not quite as walkable as DC.?

When the team decided that we weren’t going to be at the mercy of any carrier last Friday, I happily volunteered as the walking tribute. I got my walking fix. And in the true essence of teamwork, it seems like everyone played to their strengths to get us over the hurdle.

As I would if I were back at home, I threw on my headphones for the walk. With hours ahead of me, there was plenty of time to listen to music and podcasts—and plenty of time for uninterrupted thinking.

To some, not waiting for a carrier to pickup packages is pretty impatient

It might sound silly, but literally pushing so many orders to the post office was a nice reminder that we’re building something real. I still remember exactly where I was sitting when the first stranger placed a Bold Xchange order. It was a big deal. I’ll never forget it! And now I'm walking hundreds of orders to the post office—all destined for strangers.?

To some, not waiting for a carrier to pickup packages is pretty impatient; in the day to day, we don’t have time to waste.

Who knows how many more hours I might have to spend shuttling packages. I haven’t spent any time estimating. I’ll do it as long as it makes sense. That’s because in the grand scheme, I’m willing to be patient. This company-building journey will take as long as it takes.

Stay Bold,

Doug