I can't remember where I saw the quote (maybe on a t-shirt?) that said "Last year I couldn't spell graduate, now I are one", but it is one of my most favorite of all time, and consistently makes me crack up. Why? Maybe the irony that as students we all have gone through the schooling process, but do we really feel like we learned everything we were supposed to learn by the time we graduate? There is a lot of press about 'diploma' mills, but isn't every school diploma have some 'fake' in it? Regardless, the seasons end, and a new season comes, and that is what I like most about the graduation process. You either graduate, or 'back to the drawing board' as they say.
Both my daughters graduated this month, one from high school (homeschool) and one from college (songwriting degree). We are so proud of them and are excited about the next season to come, whatever new adventures are on the way. I feel like that myself in many ways. On March 4th, 2020 I 'graduated' from my startup business journey, and started the next part of that journey, working for the acquiring company. (That is a whole other blog that I'll write some day. :) ) The prior 12 years before that I was in quite a grueling process that was incredibly difficult at times, despite many highlights. (Letting 12 people go before Thanksgiving in 2018 was probably the lowest.) Immediately after being acquired, I started to think about and work on what was 'next', then I had a check in my spirit. I feel like God was telling me that I needed to take a step back and fully process before moving on to the next thing. Though I had 'graduated', I didn't really fully comprehend all the lessons yet (..the processing will probably continue indefinitely. :) ). That is when I started my book, which has the working title of 'First Time Founder's Disease'. At first it was going to be my 'top 10 mistakes', but then it kept growing, and I finally made it my 'top 1,000 mistakes', which of course is somewhat of a joke, but maybe not. :) There was actually a quote supposedly that Confucius (or maybe it was Sun Tzu?) that says 'in victory there is but one lesson, but in defeat there is 1,000'. Ok, so I wasn't technically defeated, but no entrepreneur dreams about just making it out alive, though of course I'm glad I did. There are many stories I've heard that seem even more painful, but it is all relative, as they say.
So here is an update about what I've been working on:
- Do Good University continues to move forward. At the time of this writing, it looks like I'll be starting part time, but I should have a separate announcement for that in the future. The team and I are coalescing the deliverables, goals, etc. at an upcoming meeting in Nashville next week. I'm excited about the concept and feel the inertia growing!
- My Realtor friend Darren and I have been working on figuring out next steps for the first RentOrShare.IT project, the Red River Retreat center. We took multiple field trips, looked at tiny home concepts, and manufactured homes, and we are making progress. I have been working on a new explainer video and will share that soon too!
- Oh, and one more thing, an opportunity arose, seemingly out of nowhere, and Andrea and I moved quickly to move forward on it. I won't steal any thunder from my announcement next month but my hint is that it has initials SB. :)
Hope you are enjoying these blogs. Please sign up below for my e-mail list and you will get them sooner than everyone else! (I send to e-mail subscribers first, then a week or two later to LinkedIn, and then a week or two after that to Facebook).
- Andrew
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