The Next Day
The last 24 hours have been intense. Yesterday was my last day at Business Talent Group after 2.5 years. I sent my last email around 19h updating some colleagues on a positive development on one of my last deals. It felt appropriate. I’ve always prided myself on my persistence- no matter the situation, you give your all every time you cross the white line. It is probably one of the qualities that makes me a good fit for being an entrepreneur.
It also marked the end of an era for me. It was (probably) my last day in the on-demand talent space. Honestly, it feels weird. I find myself reflecting on the last seven years since we started Hillgate. I think back to who I was as a person and professional in 2014. I was young (2 years out of B-school), green, and motivated. I had no idea how to start or run a business, but I wanted to try. This is one of those moments in life when you can recognise the “impressiveness” of something you’ve done and feel like it is just your new normal.
I made so many mistakes in the five years running Hillgate. I also accomplished a lot with an amazing group of colleagues and friends who worked tirelessly alongside me. I once received wise words from an advisor during a moment of challenge: “Andrew, nobody comes to work to make you rich…”. This was an important lesson to accept that as a Founder you are always going to care more than everybody else. I had an additional lesson to learn which was that I needed to change my expectations and to stop driving my team in the same way. I learned it too late for one vintage of employees, but I was able to apply the lesson to future vintages. Such is the entrepreneurial cycle- mistakes made, lessons learned, a better version created.
When I sold Hillgate, the goal I gave myself was to lean into becoming a better professional. Number one was to become a better people manager and leader. I relied on sports a lot to get this process started.
For example, when I watched an ‘All or Nothing’ I was taking notes on how Pep Guardiola communicated with his team, especially during challenging times. The poise, the calm self-belief, the honest assessment of the situation- some amazing traits. I also listened to podcasts like The High Performance Podcast and read books directly related like Radical Candor and took lessons from books like A Problem form Hell and The Education of an Idealist (yes, I love Samantha Power). It was a constant process of learning, analysing, and implementing. There were common themes developing for great leader- be authentic, (over) communicate, be clear on the objectives and each person’s role, success is not about one day or session; it is about accumulating consistently over time. Show up. That is half the battle for a lot of people.
Next was to prepare myself for the next chapter, which I sensed was most likely starting another company. I delved into a number of common books (The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Zero to One, etc) about entrepreneurship and listened to podcasts like How I Built This. There were so many learnings, but one theme I picked up on was a difference in the tone of the story based on if someone was a first-time founder or a serial entrepreneur.
The serial entrepreneurs’ stories had a less dramatic flavour to them. Often, they describe challenges in an analytical way rather than as something existential. For example, if your product lacks traction the response is about finding the right fit rather than worrying if the business is doomed. I think that is one of the keys to the experience- you know how many challenges you will face, and it helps you approach the situation differently. I certainly can relate to this. It reminds me a lot of “the flow” in sports- the state where you are unshackled by the pressure, and you are playing carefree. This is not to say there isn’t pressure; there is. However, you manage it better and, ideally, turn it into a motivator. You want to take the shot with the game on the line!
So here I am, officially launched into starting my second company. I am excited about our mission at Slope Health— giving people a way to be active and healthy without having to sweat. I am also excited to apply my lessons learned from Hillgate and to build another company (bigger, better, and with more laughs). I’ll summarise my excitement with one of my favourite phrases:
Let’s fucking go!
