Seen.
There’s always a very good reason to give up.
The past six months in one of the businesses we’re working with have been particularly tough.
A funding round delivered only 30% of target. Then the CTO suffered a minor heart attack halfway through building the product. Then they lost their entire market overnight when the COVID crisis hit.
These are all excellent reasons to give up. We’ve seen a lot of founders – understandably - give up and go home after a lot less. This founder lived every day, for months, in full knowledge that the reasons to continue were a lot less convincing than the excellent reasons to stop. It's an experience we think many founders will relate to. We did.
But they didn't stop. They doubled down on marketing, extended their technology and are winning clients faster now than before COVID. Their success has prompted them to gear up for a seven-figure Series A.
There’s always going to be a lot of good reasons to give up. They're probably going to better than the reasons to keep going. We were reminded that being a founder is making a conscious choice to keep going, every day.
Learned.
Tell me where it hurts?
Pain can sometimes be your radar.
Sometimes sharing the most painful thing - be it an anxiety, suspicion, a feeling, a gut instinct or even a suppressed resentment - can open the path to progress and clarity.
As long we commit to sharing with authenticity and to listening openly to responses (remembering to admit the possibility that we are wrong) being open creates learning - and can clear the air.
Bringing painful things to the surface means they can be dealt with. The unspoken is never addressed. Letting things fester causes hesitation and paralysis which can cause real damage to great businesses.
Read.
Understanding the world that we lead our businesses and people through is part of the responsibility. Our actions, choices and attitudes resonate far beyond our businesses.
Although written in 2017, "Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race” by the brilliant Reni Eddo-Lodge provides deep perspective into the depth of heartbreak and anger unleashed by the tragic death of George Floyd. Humbling, informative and illuminating.
And finally.
Alex said he'd seen people smiling again for the first time in weeks as the COVID pallor lifts from London. Whilst the terrible violence in the US and the subsequent protests upset and impacted us all, this reminded us that tomorrow gifts us another chance to be a better person and make a better world. If we can commit to that, maybe life beyond lockdown will be alright.
