Let’s talk about making decisions. Cause I get to phofphelesziz… (dude next to me at Tosca suggested “proselytize”… that’s almost the word, though not quite… Gah! Where is Fitzpatrick when you need him?!)
First, a very important question: What do I want?
Simple: I want to be happy 1) personally and 2) professionally. Both must fit within certain constraints. What are they?
Constraint 1: Regret
When faced with any difficult decision, I ask: “What will I regret in the future?” That is, wa-a-a-ay out in the future, assuming that I grow old without growing senile. All minutiae promptly crumbles off the core often clearing the path to a decision.
Constraint 2: Personal Values
Can’t take money to the grave + want to be able to sleep at night. That is, if my friends, family, future children learn about a decision – will it still feel right?
So far, no regrets and I stand by every decision I ever made in this manner… and I’ve made some decisions that people think are… well… strange…
Goals: JoVE & Moshe
A) For JoVE to be successful – financially, culturally, and impact-wise.
B) For Moshe to be successful. Irrespective of our conflict, he had a tremendous impact on how I’ve become who I am. Besides, he was (and possibly/hopefully will remain after this) a good, even if occasionally incredibly difficult, friend. For those of you who claim I am naive – I can live with that. Glass half full and all.
Goals: Personal
To launch several projects, have a positive impact, enjoy life. We live in fascinating times when amazing things are possible. The preceding generations would crust up into hard cynics over futility of it all – we don’t have that excuse.
Status Quo
Well, personal goals are on track.
JoVE is a bit of a mess. Financially we barely grew in 2012, our culture is poor (Glassdoor), and I would speculate that our impact is well below potential. That said, unfortunately, this is not entirely unexpected. It is difficult enough for any company to grow past 50 people, a notorious breaking point in itself. But JoVE, with all of its peculiarities, personalities, problems, egos, fear of borsch (oh, the inside jokes!), etc. – for us the transition has been particularly challenging. And to add to this mess, our failure as founders to ensure adequate conflict resolution compounded our problems.
So what’s next?
It’s a decision tree… Grandpa Mark once told me:
“Hope for the best, but expect the worst – this way you’ll never be bitterly disappointed, but you may be pleasantly surprised.”
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