August Saturdays
This summer is the first time since I started working on companies that I truly focused on my own foundation. When I first started Coherent, I didn’t go into it with the goal of starting a massive company (although that was one of the sub-goals). Instead I set out to keep growing, because I felt that the growth that I had was capped in the current role that I was in.
I grew, but in ways tangential to what I expected. Much of the growth was personal, not professional. Sure, I grew my network, but I also learned a lot about different challenges that grew me formally as a CEO, but in much deeper ways as a person. I was going through photos from this summer realizing how great the opportunity to reflect on that has been.
One of the major foundational growth things is I think my overall north star has changed. I still love building products and companies, but I have a much deeper spiritual foundation and perspective on the world that is less self-seeking and founded much more on service and curiosity. From that spiritual foundation I’ve found a lot of other foundational things that have actually supported work and led to even more success, even if work wasn’t the myopic focus.
Grateful to be spending August Saturday’s with old friends, still grinding on the things I love, and getting back to the basics.