in an evangelist for remote work sees the rest of the world catch on (new york times 7-12-2020) i learned how matt mullenweg founded automaticc (which owns wordpress) with a “distributed workforce”–where everyone has worked from home all over the world from the get go.
i was struck for the millionth time with how people who create new things have to persevere in the face of naysayers. investors told him there was no way a company could grow in this way. they were wrong. they do all their interviewing by chat (no video, no “seeing” the person live in anyway) to eliminate any unconscious bias. they were told they’d be scammed this way; they’d hire the wrong person. that was wrong too.
usually my biggest takeaway from such stories is that my ideas are great and i just have to have more follow-through and not give up on them. this time my takeaway was different. my pattern for years is that wonderful ideas come to me, i am able to take these ideas and enroll people in them and create something, but i am not able to sustain the organizations or efforts that i create. i have judged myself for decades about this.
i’ve decided that i am done, finito with judging myself for creating things and not sustaining them. the lesson of the most inspiring stories of the world is not “be like them.” the lesson is “be like you.” i am a starter-upper not a sustainer. i’m just not. i need to stop expecting me to be different from how i am. i need to value my own strengths and expect the world to mirror that internal value. i’ll list the judgments below that i’d like to clear in the video i’ll begin to clear them.
i am a loser.
i can’t finish anything.
i am a jack of all trades, master of none.
i have no follow through.
i’ll never amount to anything because i can’t do this.
ideas are worthless without follow-through.
even creating organizations or teams is worthless without being willing to do the work.
and on and on…
