Not the journey you expected

I was driving home in the rain from the bay area after a full 3 days of meetings. While there is always the option to fly, I love driving to and from the bay as this is where I get some serious thinking time. I used to fill my trip with early morning calls but find myself filling these trips with my thoughts, audiobooks, and podcasts instead.

I was listening to the reboot podcast and found an episode “Not the journey you expected” and loved it.

Founding a company for the second time, I had all these expectations and fantasies (remember that entrepreneurs are optimists in their core). I thought that I’d be able to get funding with a single meetings. Recruit team members effortlessly. Product development would move faster. However I find myself on another startup journey that offers many of the same struggles as before.

Instead of becoming frustrated at myself or the situation, listening to this podcast made me realize that the journey I’m on isn’t the one that I expected, but it’s much more meaningful in other ways. I’m able to meet with many more investors and create new relationships. I’m able to network more and get to know more great people in the Santa Barbara community while recruiting team members. I’m able to apply more data, process, and thought into our product development which has opened up a whole array of possibilities.

Sometimes our journey isn’t what we expected and that’s a great thing.