Entrepreneur In Training

A note to myself from the future

Dear David,

It’s tough running your own company sometimes isn’t it? Remember those days at BigCo? There was lots of gravy but it was some pretty bland gravy wasn’t it? Remember what you read in that Founders at Work interview with Brewster Kahle?

Kahle: Having your own company means that its much harder to blame somebody else. If you are working inside a big company, you can always blame management, marketing, engineering or something. But when you are running it, you can’t, because its all your responsibility….

Another, I thought, was expressed really well by Don Yannias of Encyclopedia Britannica. He said “Now that I am running Encyclopedia Britannica, I have to be Mr. Sunshine every day.” Because people are looking to you, not just for the ideas, but for the general attitude toward how to make the whole thing work. Carrying a company is a lot of weight. You have to make sure that you keep on the uptick - not just financially, but also make it so that it’s a fun environment and people want to work there.”

So David remember that you WANTED to do this, you NEEDED to do this, and it was absolutely the RIGHT thing to do!

Keep your chin up, keep laughing and go out there and overwhelm somebody with greatness.

Sincerely,

David