12/10/20 – Weekly 3 Newsletter

1 Quote:

“Calling a child “rebellious” has the equivalent effect of calling a child that is struggling in school “stupid”.   It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

~ Tim Kimmel

1 Thought:

About 10 years ago, a couple of colleagues had approached me about forming a small consulting firm with them.  One was a recently retired tech attorney and the other had held a few different positions heading up projects for others; but came from family money and was wanting to do something for himself.   The work would be around consulting entrepreneurs at various stages and was right up my ally.

We had had several strategy sessions hashing out how we wanted to work, who our target market would be, how we would structure our firm, etc…  The first outside meeting we had was with a head of an investment fund that we wanted to work with. None of us knew him prior to that meeting, so after he filled us in on himself and the fund, we went around and introduced ourselves and our backgrounds.  I shared about my years of windsurfing and traveling the world after college and how I then landed in the world of venture capital and what I had been doing since.

Immediately after we left the meeting the man who came from family money told me that I should never tell people about my windsurfing as it made me look flakey and that people would not take me seriously or respect me.   I was shocked and irritated.  I knew at that moment the partnership would never work. Traveling the world (especially 3rd world countries) had made me who I was.  I understood more about life, taking risks and how the global economy really worked because of the experiences I had.  In that split second I decided that I would never apologize for who I was or how I had lived my life ever again.  It’s 10 yrs later now, I have never looked back and I encourage everyone to live their life authentically and with full transparency and if others can’t handle it, they aren’t meant to be in your life.

1 Question: