There is one thing that you will need to do that you don’t normally.
Take risks.
My former boss
This was a highlight from a conversation I had earlier today with my former boss. I worked for him for 5 years building web applications and running product development. I was a VP for 4 years there.
I remember the whole conversation but that part really elicits a lot of emotion. Mostly because he is right. I stayed working there for too long probably. I had a great deal of assumptive loyalty to the organization and suffered from sunken cost fallacy (not wanting to walk away from what I had invested so much time in). Interesting to hear someone you were so loyal to make a comment about your not taking risks.
He is shutting down the company and was talking to me about an ABC – Assignments for the Benefit of Creditors. The way that I understand this is that I would go to the bank and negotiate a deal to retain all the assets for some price. It is kind of like an estate sale only for the assets of the company.
Once agreed upon, I would assume that debt but then have full rights to take those assets and start a new business with them. The hope is that the bank would then get paid back for some portion of their investment through the business that they allowed me to run.
However, the more I read about it the more that it appears to benefit the owner more than the assignee (me); not totally surprising. I mean, if I don’t normally take risks then I damn sure shouldn’t start with a lopsided one.
I will definitely read more into that and probably meet with a lawyer and the bank to discuss and see what the options are. As I talked about yesterday, I really do want to pursue the data and technology space on my own. This could be a way BUT it is not the only way.
My father-in-law had to have surgery the other day to clear out some blockages in his legs. He is like 189 years old. Not really, I think like 76 or 8… around there.
He has lived a lot of life and he has stories to back it up. Trust me I know, I have heard many variations of the same ones. He is a really good guy and I love messing with him. Oh, Poppie.
He asked me to build him a little stool for next to his bed to help in get in and out. We have built a lot of things together. A few summers ago we built a wooden shed (12’x14’) from bare materials; no plans either. As a matter of fact, he still has my miter saw. That guy…
I thought about the stool he requested.
I see it as a symbol. I see it as him asking for my help… sure, help with his recovery from his surgery but also much more than that. It also means help with my mother-in-law, it is to help with his daughter and her sister, help with his grandkids…
Can he trust me to provide support for not just him but his entire family?
It isn’t just a stool it is an agreement. It is an agreement among men, among fathers and husbands.
Yes, you can lean on me. Yes, they can lean on me. I will build you a stool.
So at 6pm tonight I went out into the garage to build a stool fit for a King. A stool that can shoulder the weight of 76-78 years of life and a wife and two daughters and three grandkids. A stool that he can look at and say… I know Nate will take care of things. I don’t have to worry.
Maybe that is a stretch… maybe I am so deep in the matrix of my mind that I am making something out of nothing and really just need help stepping up and that none of these other things have ever crossed his mind.
OR… maybe when he sees it he will know what it meant to me to have had the privilege to make it for him and for his family.
At around 10pm I put the 4th coat of paint on it. It is a 6” high stool spanning about 16” across and maybe 10” wide. I am using metal pipe feet and also attached a pipe handle to one end. Tomorrow morning when I wake up Ill attach the no slip grip tape to the top and it will be good to go.
Why would I spend 4 hours making a stool? So he can rest easy knowing that stool will support not just him but everyone he cares about too.
Beckett was outside with me just about the entire time I was in the garage working on the stool.
Dad, can we sleep in the tent?
Dad? Are you almost done? Dad…
There was absolutely no part of me that wanted to sleep on a 3” foam mattress tonight. I was tired. There was paint on my hands. I hadn’t eaten dinner yet and still had this post to write.
No would have been easy. I could have made up some excuse.
Needless to say I am writing this post 8’ off the ground with Beckett asleep next to me in the tent. We each had a snack and he made it through about 30 minutes of Avengers before asking me to rub his back and then passing out.
Do you know how long it took me to set up the tent? Because when he asked my first thinking was… I don’t want to have to set that up, it takes SO long.
10 minutes.
BUT, when faced with the request my default response was that it would take TOO long to setup. That is not the case. That is just an excuse and a bad one.
10 minutes and he is like the happiest kid ever. He packed our snacks and brought his Uno cards up here with his water bottle.
He will remember these nights. I will remember these nights. I will not remember the 10 minutes it took to set the tent up.
That is the funny thing about time. It is paradoxical.
Things can simultaneously fly by and also take longer than expected. Long days become fast years. Things that take too long are over in 10 minutes and one night spent in a tent can last forever.
Beckett’s head is resting on my arm while I finish this post. 10 minutes well spent.
Time passes in unexpected ways. How are you going to use it?
Tick tock. Tick tock…
– Nate
