“The next day I passed the young lady again the breakfast room and stopped to speak with her.
‘Good morning, how are you today?’
She drew herself up ever so slightly and, with a tilt to her chin and a sparkle in her eye, answered me.
‘Perfect,’ she said.
Later, when she was leaving with her parents, I called out mischievously, ‘Have a perfect day!’
‘I will!’ she responded, as though it were the easiest, most obvious choice in the world.
And with that, she sailed out into a universe of possibility.”
I love this opening story from The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander. It illustrates a simple little choice we can make in every moment to see perfection. Not because everything is easy, but because we’ve chosen it to be perfect. You might be hungry, tired, challenged, busy, or afflicted by any number of issues, but in this moment, things are perfect just the way they are.
I wanted to share this story to open up the week. As summer starts, and nice weather is upon us here in the northeast, remember choose perfection today. And tomorrow. And in this little moment right here.
Updates from the Job Search Journey
I’m having lots of helpful conversations with friends about career stuff. Looking for a job after being a founder is a strange and non-linear process. Sometimes I feel like I’ve found a perfect opportunity and get really excited. Other times, I feel like my progress has stalled and I’ll never find a good fit. I’ve had to constantly remind myself to return to an intentional process of making assumptions and methodically testing them.
Right now, I have my assumed potential futures, and I need to talk to people with those types of jobs to test if I would actually be a fit in a similar role. Before I do that discovery work, and test those assumptions, I can’t get too emotional about specific roles. That part of the process will come later.
I want to be present in the process with full fidelity, allowing myself to have a robust empathy phase, before really defining the specific types of roles I want, and then sharing that hope with the world.
My priorities I outlined last week are still the same, but I’m seeking more and more clarity about the types of titles, responsibilities and organizations I would thrive in. Thank you to the 17 people who have spoken with me so far, and the others I have calls lined up with in the coming weeks!
Personal Updates
I’ve gotten a lot more physically active in recent weeks. I’m now playing tennis 2-3 times/week in competitive matches. I entered a local tournament that starts tomorrow against some of the best players in the area.
We’re going on a mini road trip next week with our dogs to the mid-Atlantic to visit friends and attend a wedding. Looking forward to seeing a number of people in person who we haven’t seen for many months!
I co-hosted a happy hour in Concord, NH last week for young people looking to meet other young people. Only one person showed up other than the people who were involved in organizing it, but we had a great time and are planning future events. We invited about a dozen other people, but sometimes I think that you just have to get started to show people that you’re serious about doing something. We’re hoping for more people to come next time to kickstart a small community because I hear from everyone that they feel like there is no community vibe for young people in this area.
That’s all for this week! Thanks for reading,
Zack