Many moons ago I sat down to eat with one of the co-founders of the startup I worked for. The company had grown pretty significantly over those past couple of years and it was a warm summer day down on the peninsula. So we decided to get outside for some lunch. Over a couple sandwiches we discussed our progress and some of the challenges that came with the territory.

When I started to dig into the specifics of a critical issue that frankly I can’t even remember anymore, I’ll always remember his casual reply. It was something along the lines of “Don’t worry too much about it. We’ll solve it. At this point those individual challenges and even our quarterly revenue goals don’t matter as much in the scheme of things. We’re making great directional progress.”

Huh. It was pretty surprising to hear one of the founders of the business say something like that. And to be fair he was not in charge of the revenue side of the business. But he had trust in the strategy. He had confidence and the corresponding perspective that our company was moving in the right direction. Those pesky individual crises and quarterly “undulations” just didn’t matter as much.

I feel like I understand that better now. Now maybe I don’t always express it as publicly to individuals or teams, but I try to keep that reminder in the back of my mind on those rainier days.

With the beginning of 2022 already feeling a little wobbly with Omicron, stock market selloffs, or IPOs in jeopardy (?), it still feels like things are moving forward in the right direction. Just got to have a little (directional) perspective is all.