I Love Weather
One of the best things about living in Boulder is experiencing all four amazing seasons in full. Summers, Winters, Falls & Springs. Yay.
Thankful
This is a nice holiday. Just a relaxing, spend time with people you love day. And that’s it. Would be nice to have more holidays like this. I’m spending this holiday with my Dad, in a way I have never spent time with my Dad. This is the first time I’ve seen him since he began a divorce with my Mom a few months ago after 32 years of marriage. Trying times for sure. Can’t wait to see my Mom for Christmas.
Huge thanks to my wife & daughter for being themselves. I am so thankful for all of my family, friends, coworkers and the incredible community of people who inspire me daily through Threadless. Happy holidays.
Constantly surprise yourself
I never finished college. The time I did spend in college I learned about web design. But I consider myself more of a web developer than a designer. And I never learned a thing about entrepreneurship. (Ha, I just had to look that word up in the dictionary.)
When thinking recently about some of the values I subconsciously lived by when starting Threadless, I kept coming back to one. I was never afraid to figure things out on my own. Things may not have been done as well as an “expert” could do them but they got the job done. It is also extremely gratifying to just stumble your way into the unknown and come out of it with something new that you learned or made or figured out. The feeling of surprising yourself, finding out that you are capable of doing something you didn’t know how to do.
It’s a value I look for in people I work with. People willing to step outside their comfort zone every once in a while and do something new… innovate.
If you don’t already know it, you are capable of so much more than you already know. Push it. I bet you could figure out how to make the best blueberry pie in the world if you wanted to.
My brother asked me…
A few months ago I played a game of pool with my brother. The bet: I lost, I had to visit him when he went to school in Italy. He lost, he had to come back home for Christmas. I lost. I went and saw him for 2 full days and 2 half days. It was a quick trip and we had a ton of fun.
We talked a lot about what he wants to do with his life. He is having a bit of a hard time finding his passion. (Though I think he’s closer now.)
At one point he asked me what my passion was. And it was actually kind of hard to answer. I’ve always considered myself passionate about what I do but I never thought in depth about what it is I’m so passionate about. Because it’s not t-shirts. And it’s not the internet. (Though I love being involved in both.) When it comes down to it, my passion is creating things. I think that is every entrepreneur’s passion – to create something. It’s so simple.
Do you have a passion for making things? If so you’ve found your passion. Now you just need to find something you’re interested in and use your passion to build something around it.
Kids are smart
They just haven’t figured out our way of doing things. Our 2 year old can’t tell time so we simply told her she can’t wake up until it is light outside, cause that she gets. I was thinking there could be a whole line of products built around this idea. Like a clock that has 2 faces that flip. A picture of a sleeping kid at night means it’s still sleeping time, a picture of a kid up playing during the day means it’s OK to get up. Or a little shoe rack to put by the door that has spots with images displaying different weathers so you can visually explain why you can’t wear sandals in the snow.
Months ago Arli was getting pretty rowdy with her food at the dinner table. I had her help me make a sign that said “No Throwing Food” and posted it up at our table. She stopped and she can’t even read. But since she helped me make it she knows what it is and if the problem comes up again, I just point to the sign!
I think there’s a great opportunity for a cool product line built off the idea that kids are super smart, you just need to communicate with them on their level sometimes. The goal being to make things educational for children that also make parents’ lives easier.
Who wouldn’t want that?
BTW, this book is amazing.
