Joy in the Journey

One of my first internships was with Overland Partners in San Antonio. This was an introduction to running a business from a culture standpoint. There were several guiding values that the firm leadership set up, and they can be found here. The one major value I am experiencing right now is Joy in the Journey. Doing a startup is extremely stressful, and it is a bit like cramming 4 years of business school into 6 months, where the consequences are not grades, but life and death of your company. The point of this post is to reflect on the Joy in the Journey — the moments and mindset that make it worth it.

The Journey of Sales

I am a building designer. I am a technical person that knows how to put parts together to make a whole. I am not a sales guy, and in the early days (4 months ago) I was so nervous during the initial sales meetings, that my partner said under his breath, "don't raise your arms". We would leave, and sure enough, like the great flood, I would need a new shirt. Now I treat sales meetings as a discussion about a customer's needs in addition to showing off the product. I don't leave stressed anymore — you get used to rejection, and at least I leave with information about what they need.

The Journey of Marketing

The largest weakness of Architectural training is the lack of verbal or written communication. Why would I need to explain something verbally when there is a drawing, model, or diagram present? I recently gave a presentation to the SCS Chapter in Boston, and afterwards a marketing professional basically told me my messaging was garbage. She gave me the resources needed to even understand the problem we are solving. This is a new one for me.