“So, what do you think?”
He swiveled in his chair to get a better look at me.
“I like it,” I said. I sat deeper into my chair. “Actually, I love it.”
He beamed, and for good reason. He had just finished showing me a homemade recording of himself. Set to some stock background music, his recording showed him getting some work done at his local library. He whispered at his phone about how he loves working at the little cubicles at the library.
“Unfortunately,” he whispered in the video, “all of the cubicles are taken. So I’ll just work here.”
Here’s what got me about his video.
There was a scene before entering the library that stood out to me.
His phone was turned to selfie mode. It showed him in a simple white t-shirt he had received in high school. He was sitting in the front seat of his car.
“I’d consider myself a college dropout,” he said timidly to the camera. “And I wouldn’t consider myself an entrepreneur, yet. But I felt like I had to try.”
That was the line that got me.
It was so straight forward. So honest. So self-aware.
So refreshing to hear.
Building an honest business.
An honest business is about more than simply operating within the law.
It’s also about being honest with yourself about where you’re at in your own journey.
There are people running around claiming to be what they’re not, especially within the entrepreneurial ecosystem. They’ll call themselves entrepreneurs, but they’re saying it wishfully. I’m guilty of it sometimes.
I think that’s why his video resonated so much with me at that moment.
See, my business isn’t doing the hottest right now. It’s keeping me up at night. It’s keeping me restless. And so I’m forced to go back to the basics. I’m having to swallow my pride (again and again) in order to make the thing work like it should.
In other words, I was the one running around calling myself an entrepreneur. But I wasn’t putting in the right work.
I hadn’t been honest about where I’m at in my own journey, and it caused internal friction. Didn’t feel right.
But thanks to a college dropout, I’m back on track.
And man, does it feel good.
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Photo: Jay Austin