Passion

Travel Gear: Field Notes, F1 and Perfect Pencil, originally uploaded by Patrick Ng

I was writing about my career and my life and things I have learned about myself over the years, but I had trouble finding the words. Something about how I enjoy planning, building, and learning. Then Penelope Trunk posted this and the words were a mirror.

So in addition to this dead-on description:

"I am great in that [company building] phase of a business–-thinking, philosophizing, finding holes in markets, finding holes in ideas. I never give up. I always have another idea, and I don’t mind feeling lost day after day, week after week."

I would also add:

• I love promoting other people. My paid job is a support role and that's where I gravitate in my side hustles. I get great satisfaction from being the one in the background who gets things done. In essense saying, "hey, look at these guys, check out the cool things they are doing."
• I'm ambitious. I used to think that I lacked ambition because I didn't aspire to a high-paying job in a corner office. It turns out that is not true. When I am working for someone else I am usually content to do the best I can at the job I was hired to do. But when left to my own devices, I set extremely lofty goals for myself, and when I achieve one I just move the bar higher.
• I need help. The other gem from the article is this: "the first sign that you are outside of your strengths is when you can’t make yourself do the work you need to do." My ambition won't allow me to back down from the projects I'm passionate about, but there's too much to do on my own. So I'll be trying something interesting this year: interns and teams.