Reindeer Antlers, A Haunted Mansion, & The Bliss Of Ignorance

We dutifully put on our reindeer antlers (among other quirky and festive headbands) and took our holiday team photo in the parlor of the haunted Denver mansion.

And yes, it really was haunted. I could tell my friend and colleague Kyle didn’t really want to stay on the third floor with the locked window that would randomly open itself, but he put on his brave face and did it anyway.?We didn't say it out loud, but I'm pretty sure everyone else appreciated his courage as much as I did.

It was one of my absolute favorite work rituals: gathering in person.?

Most of the year we worked completely virtually (we were those distributed “cool kids” on Zoom and Slack long before the pandemic) but at the beginning of December we’d fly everyone to my hometown, Denver, for three days to review the last year, hear me rant in some kind of “State Of The Union” way about the current shape of things, do our strategic planning for the upcoming year, enjoy meals together, and play games in the evening.

I didn’t know it at the time, but that would be our last full in-person team meeting for a while... because it was December of 2019.

Turns out, I didn’t know a lot of things then.

I didn’t know a close colleague would betray me.

I didn't know we'd have to become a tech company, basically overnight.

I didn’t know how to lead a team of developers.

I didn’t know how to do fundraising.

And I didn’t know our billion dollar business idea would eventually crash and burn.

We say it all the time: “Ignorance is bliss!”

And what if it IS bliss, but it's not just that?

What if ignorance is actually an amazing gift that helps us try for great things??

After this pivotal meeting in December 2019, everything in my business started to change. Would I have embarked on the journey I did, knowing what was about to happen? Would I have actually set into motion the wild things I ranted about in that year's State Of The Union? Would I have swung SO hard for a goal that was SO big, knowing it wasn't going to work out at all the way I hoped?

Ah, ignorance!

Do you think of ignorance as your friend?

Now I see that ignorance has a large, important part to play in entrepreneurship — and maybe life in general. Most times, we don’t really have a clue what we’re getting ourselves into because if we did, we'd probably never get into them! (This sentiment probably applies to many phases of parenting, too...?)

So we try, and we do swing for the fences.?

Why? Maybe exactly because we don’t know any better.

And maybe that’s exactly what makes it magic.