“There are no bonus points for doing everything the hard way.”
–Shaan Puri
Puri was talking about his move to Silicon Valley from Australia at the beginning of his career. He wanted to build a technology startup. Although he liked living in Australia on the beach, its technology startup sector was nonexistent.
Although he didn’t know it at the time, this move gave him 24/7 networking opportunities, friendships and personal interactions that propelled his professional life resulting in him creating several successful startups.
I couldn’t agree more. When I was part of Pittsburgh’s thriving tech scene in the 1990’s, it was magical. I left there to move to South Florida, thinking I was hot shit and would replicate the success I had in Pittsburgh. I was naive and had a lot of lessons to learn.
Florida was a technology desert. I was lucky to find a decent job.
If I could do it all over, I would have moved to Silicon Valley.
Shaan’s quote had me thinking more about my personal life than business though. There are no bonus points for doing everything in life the hard way either.
I remember telling a friend who was in the midst of a tumultuous romantic relationship that love wasn’t supposed to be that hard. He was constantly having to assess the relationship, discuss problems with his girlfriend and “work on himself“. I told him that when he was with someone who was a good fit, it would be much easier.
I was right. He found the right person and is having that experience – just like I did with my wife.
I thought about Shaan’s quote regarding my fitness regimen. I have had several nagging injuries. I dreaded getting started somedays – especially when the garage or pool was cold. I’d been stagnating at the same levels with no improvement for over a year.
It was my shoulder injury that finally drove me to make a change. Suddenly it became clear to me that I what I was doing was no longer serving me. If anything, it was setting me back.
It was crystal clear. I thought about this for a few hours and made a decision t radically change everything overnight.
When I mentor people there are times when I tell them, “It’s supposed to be easy.”
That doesn’t apply to all things, all the time. But it does apply to some things some of the time.
If you’re a hard charging person who likes to grind like I do, sometimes you might need a nudge – or an injury – to get you to see it.