(add failure analysis from 2021 to 2025 here)
“The difference between you and the average billionaire is they just take slow, calculated risks.”
Business learning:
“The importance of decisiveness. Also that wisdom is really just understanding the long term consequences of your actions.
How important the right team dynamic is. Honestly, it takes a lot of different team rotations, cycles, and turnover until you find the company-team fit, just as it does for you finding product-market fit. It allows for such a faster speed of movement, again this comes with time experience, and momentum. The momentum attracts the best talent. It's also crucial to stick to the basics sometimes of what you're working on/what you're building. It easy to get so caught up on ideas but you need to execute at what's in front of you.”
Getting robbed at gun point.
Lesson: think ahead, always be aware of my surroundings, think before acting. Focus on the task at hand. Slow down because it will allow me to make better decision than doing multiple things at once.
Temporary business setback with The Food Company and ZIKI. I will only ever see it as this.
I will only ever see “failure” as strategic repositioning.
Why?
Because I refuse to give up.
God is on my side and with Him all things are possible.
It would only be “failure” if I stopped pursuing the endgame.
The aim is the aim, the standard is the standard, the mission is the mission.
Nothing need interfere with this.
Ever.
Die for the cause or don’t dare to enter into the game at all.
I won’t ever regret my 8 month relationship with Rilee. It was definitely a mission from God and intended for me to demonstrate the love of Christ to her.
Despite my personal shortcomings, I’m grateful for the opportunity to show love and I’m committed to learning and improving future relationships by setting clear expectations and maintaining biblical standards. I always knew that needed to be the case.
I need to date the person for who they are, not the expectation of what they can be. I knew I was doing the latter, when with Rilee. We both knew she was being stretched and growing faster than ever around me. But there can only be so much of that for someone who doesn’t want to change so fast, and that’s ok.
I believe a successful relationship should involve mutual submission to God's will and that the right partner will align with my life direction, rather than the other way around.
Who cares if you're not paying people now as a startup. Get over that mentality of being sorry for employees in them doing their work for you since they are unpaid.
Because if people aren't performing well now when they're unpaid, they're most certainly not going to perform well later when they are paid
Conviction and courage will allow persistence to occur. Without them, the path of persistence is stale.
Conviction doesn't lie.
When selling clients, partners, or potential employees, make sure you sell the vision and your story. Selling an employee on why they should buy into you is no different than selling a client on why they should buy into you too.
You know where you are going as a founder. Let people tag along with you. Show them the vision and lead the way. If they buy in, great. If they don't, great. Move on with who you need and adjust as needed.
HUGE learnings from the first ever 2 co-op interviews. Nick gave unbelievable advice and also has been giving great examples by his actions as I see him on calls and and meetings when talking to others. Even when him and I have deep discussions everyday, I'm getting a clearer vision on what needs to occur and what I have to step into as I go into this next phase.
My dad (this is TJ as I write it) says I'm going to take a company public, be a millionaire, and be successful and happy. He is right. I've always known it too. But his believing in me, sometimes more than my own, shows me that I need to be that person more than I should want those things.
Just like this: DON'T STRIVE TO PLAY IN A CHAMPIONSHIP, STRIVE TO BE A CHAMPIONSHIP LEVEL PERFORMER!
Refusing to give up.
Unwavering level of faith.
If you have nothing else to sell, sell yourself.
Know your leverage.