This is probably the last post (for you)

Stop Sign by thecrazyfilmgirl

I’ve been pushing posts out, 5 days a week, for a few months now, which begs the question: why?

And if you’re one of the ones asking that, you’re wasting your time here.

Today’s money quote, taken from this blog post I found via Ramit’s mailing list:

It wasn’t until I decided to launch my own startup that I realized that nothing I’ve read, watched or attended really prepared me for it. And I mean it. Absolutely NOTHING. I had forgotten most of what I’ve learned, and what I remembered didn’t apply much to my situation. I’ve been snacking on other people’s experiences and successes, and like good junk food, it made me feel bloated and satisfied.

There’s a percentage of you who just read that and said “yeah, that makes sense.”

And there’s a percentage of you who just pooped your pants, gave a high five to your monitor, and said “OMG that’s normal?!?! Thank god!”

Guess who my audience is.

People say you should attend conferences for the hallway conversations and not the speakers, and they’re partly true.  But I get huge value from hearing someone who’s gotten further than I have speak about their lessons learned.  I’m almost guaranteed a “wait, that happens to other people too?” moment.  Every time.

Like when Geoff Teehan talked at Mesh about the challenges he faced trying to make a product while doing billable hours work. Or when [name withheld] spoke about going to a conference despite being flat broke, waking up covered in his own vomit after medicinal drinking, having to reschedule his flight, and calling his wife to say “hi honey, I’ll be a bit late, but I made some real breakthroughs, it’s going to be OK.”

(Note: I haven’t done the vomit thing.  But if you’ve been in the trenches, that story resonates a whole lot more than if you’re reading this from your 9-5 job where, frankly, you should be working.)

I write these posts as beacons for other people in the space I’m in.  If you’re not there, I’m not going to block you, but honestly, you’re wasting your time here.  You’re not preparing for anything.  If you have kids, picture it as like reading a parenting blog before you’ve even had sex.

Trust me, you get used to rejection in this space.  You can stop reading; I won’t mind.

(By the way, that quote at the beginning was from Amir Khella, who made (among other things) Keynotopia, which I’ve used with great success.  If you’re a startup, get it.  If you’re an armchair CEO, try it out and you might gain a little more insight about us in future posts if you stick around.)

Photo by thecrazyfilmgirl


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