Cresting the Summit and Choosing to Climb Again | Between The Builds

Chris Fay: Welcome to Built with Purpose. I am Chris Fay, and this is the show where vision meets execution and leadership leaves a legacy. From design studios to innovation hubs and product lines to skylines, we meet the people building more than great companies. They're creating culture, driving impact, and shaping what's next. These are the stories and strategies behind how the world gets built with purpose. Alright, everybody, welcome to Built with Purpose. Today is another Episode of Between the Builds. Great opportunity, man. So I'm not sure if you all had the opportunity to listen to the podcast last week. Mo Abbas was on there with me. He lives out in Silicon Valley. He's ⁓ kind of a ⁓ rampant entrepreneur, have has done a number of different organizations in the SaaS space now. I tell you what, God, I was sitting there during that conversation and just ⁓ thinking about all the life lessons. ⁓ and so anyway, I figured today we'd kind of recap a little bit about you know where where that's at. But you know, a a quick A quick personal reflection. First off, I've gotten some ⁓ I got my hair cut finally. So this is kind of funny. So I like my hair really tight and sort on the sides. ⁓ my wife and my family don't. They like my hair a lot, a lot longer. And so finally I just didn't feel like myself. We've been going through all this MA work here in our business. It's just been a super, super challenging ⁓ you know, call it 14 months or s or probably even longer inside of the company. And ⁓ you know, it was something that I just said, you know, I just I need to feel like myself. And and it's amazing how sometimes ⁓ if you don't feel good about yourself, how can you begin to feel good about anything else that you're doing? And that was actually one of the exact things that Mo was talking about last week. You know, we had this conversation. He talked about ⁓ you know, what really changed his thinking was when he was, I think, in high school and he had he had I think he said he was a little bit heavier set. He'd been pursuing, you know, this girl as a potential girlfriend, finally got her. And then ended up getting broken up with and then beaten up ⁓ within like a day of each other. And, you know, he said that was the that was the defining moment of his life where he decided he was going to take action to ⁓ to to to take control of his life and his body and where he's going. He said, look, you know, the best place to start if you're gonna make change is with yourself. It's with your body. It's it's how you take care of yourself. And then if you can't take care of yourself, how in the world are you gonna be able to take care of ⁓ of anybody else? And so anyway, that kind of reminded me as I was thinking about, you know, some of the stuff that I've been going through. It's just, you know, it's just completely hectic. You know, lots of communication, ⁓ lots of work to do, lots of negotiations and deals and just making sure strategy work, making sure you're setting your company or companies up for success long term. ⁓ you know, and and you know, in the midst of all that, last week or about a month ago, one of our one of our longtime employees had been with us for 19 years. ⁓ had come down with stage four pancreatic cancer and and actually last week had had unfortunately lost his battle ⁓ with that a five week diagnosis so from diagnosis to ⁓ his passing was ⁓ was five weeks and you know when you when you see things like that you experience things like that it just it just changes a bit of your perspective it has you just reflect back on your life and this was the this was the thing that I that I kind of looked back to and ultimately to the making fun of my of my haircut ⁓ You know, this is me. Like this this is when I feel ⁓ at my best. You know, I'm exercising, I'm taking good care of myself, I'm sleeping well, ⁓ you know, and I'm and I'm I'm trim, I'm tight. Like I got my I got my hair and my my dues kind of ⁓ you know, or now I don't have the spike today. That was one thing that ⁓ one of the guys I work with reminded me that, you know, with this aggressive start to built with purpose, maybe the spike doesn't ⁓ isn't fully reflected here, but you're getting kind of the the middle ground as it relates to the haircut. But you know, there's something about feeling really good about yourself, you know, internally and externally, that then ha has you take a whole new perspective on on life. And so I thought about, you know, our friend ⁓ and and longtime employees passing. I thought about all the stress and that we've been undergoing. And, you know, we're almost there, we're almost at the close of this, ⁓ this major transition that we're going through. And, you know, I went and got my hair cut and I came home and my Wife my kids were basically giving me a hard time. They're like, ⁓ my gosh, you know, I I miss your longer hair, blah, blah, blah. But you know what? I liked it. ⁓ and I think that each of us probably has those situations. You know, we we we do care what other people think. You know, we we do want other people to look at us in a favorable light. We do want other people, ⁓ you know, to view us as a great leader, as a great husband or wife or friend, or, you know, business owner or entrepreneur. Like we have that external validation. But if you don't have the internal validation, if you don't look at yourself in the mirror and say, you know what? I feel pretty good about myself, then you will never, ever be able to satisfy the external views of you either. And that's exactly what Mo talked about. And he talked about taking control of his life. You know, we talked about getting kicked in the teeth. That's it's some of the best ways that people make changes in their life is to just get kicked in the teeth, to get knocked down, and to have the ability to pick yourself back up. And so that was a really ⁓ simple, but yet ⁓ experiential move for me this past Saturday is to just go get my hair cut, to get kind of get myself in order and get ready to wrap up. So, you know, we talked about a lot of other things about, you know, tenacity and grit and knowing when to ⁓ quit, you know, and Mo was telling me about, we talked about sacrifice and how much sacrifice are you willing to give your team, your business, your group. ⁓ and in some cases the sacrifice is is great. It can cost you a family, it can cost you a spouse. ⁓ it can cost you relationships, it can cost you money. ⁓ so there's a lot of things. And so I think we talked a lot about kind of evaluating that risk profile. How much risk are you willing to take to achieve ultimately achieve and get the things that you want? And, you know, I think that's a question all of us can ask ourselves, you know, and I and I look at my life and you know, I think everybody's a little bit different, but I look at my life and and I probably have a pretty balanced approach. Am I willing to give everything in my life to ultimately achieve business success? And it for me, the answer is no. I am not willing to give on, you know, my my marriage. I'm not willing to give on my relationship with my children. I'm not, I'm not willing to give certain things in order to achieve the very top pinnacle in business. And some people are. And quite honestly, the people that are willing to do that are able oftentimes to take a company to the next level. And so I've sat back and I've questioned I mean, am I going to be able to compete by not fully sacrificing myself and my family and my my personal life? If I'm not fully willing to sacrifice that, am I going to be able to be successful? And I think the answer is yes, because I think if you surround yourself with like-minded people, you can build an amazing business and an amazing team without working 100 hours a week and traveling all over God's green earth. And so I think there's just a level of sacrifice that you have to gut check yourself on when you're thinking about any major goal or milestone or business or accomplishment. And then hold true to that. You know, hold true to the fact that you're not willing to give or not willing to sacrifice those things that you hold very dear. And if you are, be prepared for the outcome, which might be an amazing business venture, you know, a great personal trajectory, but you might leave some things behind. So we talked a lot about sacrifice, you know, and and Mo had been through a lot as it relates to sacrifice and had finally gotten to a point where he is now. And ⁓ you know, which kind of brings me to one of the other points we were talking about, you know, I was I was sitting here, I was kind of telling my story about, you know, the Kind of we're on the back half or or or the last little bit of this transition with our business. And, you know, I can, I'm kind of cresting the summit. And in cresting the summit, I can, I can see just over the top of the summit and the fact that there's light on the other side. And, you know, the thing that ⁓ that Moe said, he said, man, there's gonna be another hill on the other side. You know, there there's always another one. You know, you think you see the light at the under other end of the tunnel, and yet ⁓ you know, when you get there, likely there's gonna be another hill to climb. And actually, you know, as he said that, I I reflected back on it and and I said, you know, God, at first I was like, okay, I'm not ready for another hill right now. I need I need a little bit of a break on some hills. But, you know, honestly for me and I think a lot of us, it's it's the climb that we love. Like it's the climb. Like I look at some of the businesses that we're monetizing and divesting. And, you know, we have some cash coming in the door, and there's gonna be a simplicity in our in the way that we're running the business. But man, God, I love the hunt. I love the chase. I love the build. You know, and I think when I when I reflected back on what he was ⁓ talking about, I was sitting there, I was like, you know what? I actually hope there's a hill on the other side because that's where that's what I really enjoy. That's what I love is the climb and the battle and the challenge, right? You you reach the summit and I'm always ready for the next thing. So anytime I've I've you know reached some major milestones, we sold a company last year and you know, I'm I'm like, all right, I I finished the deal, let's go. Like I'm ready for the next one. And so not always very good at at reflecting back in successes. And and that's probably something that I should do a a better job of here. And I've got some I've got some time planned in the coming weeks to, you know, stop and reflect back on. But you know, to to most point, you know, likely there's gonna be another hill. And and and you know what? You want there to be. You want there to be another hill because oftentimes it's it's the it's the pursuit, it's the battle, it's the fight, it's the challenge that really inspires and motivates us. So anyway, I just I was just reflecting back on hit on the conversation and You know, really being ⁓ you know, just getting knocked down, picking yourself back up, you know, knowing when to quit and and and sometimes not quitting at the right time and it costing you ⁓ you know, a lot of money or or sacrificing relationships that you hold very dear. You know, I gosh, I think about like climbing this hill and and the fact that you're constantly gonna be climbing and and cresting and summiting. And for many of us, especially ones that are kind of more growth oriented, that's what we really enjoy. But what's really cool to hear, ⁓ where Mo is right now. And again, I think I think the kind of the message of today and the thing that I would probably challenge each of each of you with is, you know, he started with himself. He he c he comes back and he said, Man, if I can't take care of myself, how am I going to be able to take care of anybody else? If I don't have pride in the way that I'm living my life, how am I going to have pride in anything else that I've that I have out there? And the reality is folks, we only have one life to live. We had a great conversation a few weeks ago with ⁓ Dr. Grant Zarzer on a number of longevity ⁓ items. I've started a ⁓ a couple things. ⁓ function health is a is a new ⁓ a company that I've just ⁓ joined and become a member of. I would encourage you to take a look at it. But you know, really taking a look and do you feel good about yourself? You know, when you look in the mirror, are you proud of what you've built in yourself? Are the things that you would change? Are the things that you're not proud of? And what's one thing that you can do over the next week or the next 30 days to maybe take action on those items? Now, one of the things I would tell you not to do is to try and attack everything at one time. We've talked about this plenty of times on the podcast about, you know, really making sure that we've attacked the one thing, the thing that's gonna move the needle the most, the thing that's gonna get you to that next point as fast ⁓ or faster than anything else. And so when you look at yourself, what is the one thing you need to do? Maybe it's just go get a haircut. Maybe you need to maybe you need to exercise. You know, maybe you need to go take a walk after dinner one night. Maybe you need to go to the doctor, make a foundational change in how you're carrying yourself. But I guarantee you, if you look in the mirror and you feel good about the way that you look, you feel good about the way that you're treating yourself and the way you're treating your body, your ability to tackle any sort of external challenge is amplified that much more. But if you look in the mirror and you're frustrated or concerned, that's going to carry with you in everything that you do. So that's my one challenge for you all this week. Go take a look in the mirror. today and ask yourself, are you proud of what you've built? And if you are, high five, let's go rock and roll. But if you're not, what's the one thing that you can do over the next week or maybe 30 days to take action on feeling better about yourself? So with that, everybody, I hope you have an awesome time. We got some great guests coming up. Excited about that. We're going to be moving, ⁓ moving offices. So my podcast studio is going to start looking a little bit different. We've got some neat conversations coming up around the corner. And with that, I hope you all continue to build a purpose. We'll see you next time. See ya. Okay, thanks for joining me on Built with Purpose. If you have enjoyed today's episode, subscribe, share, and leave us a review. It helps more bold leaders find the show. For resources and show notes, visit our website and connect with me, Chris Fay, on LinkedIn. Until next time, keep building great companies, cultures, and legacies with purpose.