Will says goodbye to Obélix and I

It was wonderful to have Will along for the first few days of Startical 2.0 given all the adventure time we shared together during Startical 1.0, and now it was time for him to continue his travels.

As he was departing, I thanked Will for his visit as it provided a rare occasion for me to discuss wellness and philosophy and share experiences (especially culinary) in depth for more than just a fleeting moment. I realise that most of my time is spent with my startup colleagues or working in isolation. In my twenties, it was relatively easy and common to spend a week with friends-outside-of-work, but as we've all grown older (and more responsible?) it seems increasingly rare to do this. It's easy to find an excuse when you have a career and/or kids.

This reinforces for me the importance of making time for visits like these, or adventures like the one I shared last year with Will: Montreal to Chicago by rail via Vancouver and Seattle. (Photos | The Canadian | The Empire Builder). I look forward to the next one, and will definitely put in the effort to make it happen!

TechNoel

Answers to the question from Vaughn and Noor. Art with Eva...

Evolutionary Purpose

Will and I discussed finding the balance of progress and purpose in organisations (startups and otherwise) which reminded me of the book Reinventing Organizations by Frédéric Laloux which was recommended to me by one of my mentors. We found the clip above on YouTube (if you're not familiar with Laloux, it's a nice short summary of his work) and one element stood out for me: what he called Evolutionary Purpose . How I understand this concept is that the purpose (or soul) of an organisation evolves over time, rather than an individual or leadership team directing towards a specific outcome. It's very much in line with the sailboat analogy and the lunch discussion I had with the team. It is very reassuring to me that the people closest to me today all affirmed my feelings on leadership, and interesting that it often took very different paths/context for us to be able to truly connect on the subject.

Sniffles

Of course I pushed too hard and paid the price of feeling that scratchiness in my nose by mid-morning. At best I was gonna carry a mild cold through the holidays. At worst I'd be a write-off for an entire week (which happened to me right after Christmas in 2015). It's not difficult to realise that I pushed too hard. Despite being on Startical with its explicit guidelines , there was just way too much to get done before the holidays. Even my Startical posts for nearly the past week have been placeholders to fill in later. And now that's caught up to me and I'm starting sniffles. The challenge now is striking the optimal balance between preventative care and completing my commitments before Christmas: sending out personalised Owl-iday e-mails including the Owl-iday Special I had worked so hard to create. I think I'll err on the side of preventative care as I really don't want to wrap up Startical feeling sick and useless...

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