Please Excuse the Delayed Response

The last few months have been a whirlwind! Many things have changed, and I thought I would send a quick update regarding how the summer went, and what has been happening.

Three lessons you can takeaway from my summer & the inevitable reminder that relationships are everything.

1. Deadlines make projects

2. Overdeliver early

3. Time to Hug

This summer was transformative for me. I travelled a lot for work. I was invited to Canada to observe a board meeting for the First Point Volleyball Foundation (gets more boys to play Volleyball). I had two trips to San Fransisco working with a client in the health care space. I spent ten days at the Olympics in Paris. Then I had the opportunity to help my Dad do some work in Hong Kong, Atlanta, Boston and New York.

Deadlines make projects

In software consulting there is always a looming deadline. We had a project that required us to get something done by a date set by our clients partner. That meant no negotiation.

Over the course of a month, my team built better and faster than we ever have before. The constraint forced us to make decisions about what we would do, and guarantee we hit our target

Overdeliver Early

We were working with a client who wasn’t exactly sure what they wanted, and even worse wasn’t sold on working with my team and I. So what we did was build a full working demo for him in the course of two weeks… without any payment.

As you can imagine we won the work.

More importantly he trusts us now, and we have a lot of freedom to work.

Time to Hug

When you meet someone new, you probably shake their hand. My experience taught me something interesting; if both of you are comfortable giving a quick hug at the end of your initial conversation (you don’t actually need to do it and rule #1 is don’t be weird), the person is more likely to respond when you reach out.

Don’t go be a weirdo and say I’m a hugger then envelop your new contact. That’s strange. Stop don’t do that.

Instead be open, and inquisitive about the person. Use their name in conversation (I forget names all the time and the only way I remember them is by saying it repeatedly). If by the end of your first interaction, you feel comfortable hugging them, great. You’ll both be more relaxed when the time comes to meet again.

Over the course of the summer I’ve met a lot of people. The ones who I feel like I can give a hug are the ones that respond to me when send them an email.

Friends and Family are everything

The relationships in your life are the only things that make life worth living. Without the people you love around you everything kind of sucks.

Over the last few years many of my friends have moved to different cities, so I don’t get to see them very often. The time I’ve gotten to spend with them has been an absolute joy and has kept me from burning out during a months long phase of working 60 - 70 hour weeks.

Cherish the relationships you have :)

Enjoy the rest of September and see you again soon!