3 Lessons about Startups and Paying it Forward #payitforward
We all have to start somewhere. Whether it’s a child and learning to crawl and walk or moving to a different country and having to start all over again, we all need to take baby steps to get to where we want to be.
In startup life, this is no different.
We all have to build our company, one day at a time. It takes time, effort and skill to build companies. It also takes the emotional and physical support of others.
From the bottom of our hearts, we would like to sincerely extend a thank you to Jamie Siminoff and the team at Ring. We received a kind donation this week — a ring kit with a handwritten note to our founder, Ashley Adewuyi and it inspired our team to write a post about startups and the power of giving back.
Thank you Jamie for your kindness. Thanks for making us pause to remember that the little things in life, become the small things. We are all connected and a part of this journey together. Thank you for being the change to inspire others to give more and be more.
To quote Sir Winston Churchill,
“You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give.”
I have been following and sharing the Ring’s Facebook posts, watching their customer success videos and their LA neighbourhood video. I have been reading the positive comments on Ring’s Facebook page about the integrity of the Jamie and the company.
It’s left me feeling so inspired.
We are in a competitive environment in the startup world by trying to do more with less. There are so many moving parts happening at a rapid pace, placing a lot of pressure within startups. Often, it makes us pivot, steering us in many different directions. We feel the pressure to be ‘bigger than who we really are’ and feel like we are in constant survival mode.
3 lessons that I’ve taken away from this experience:
- Being grateful for the journey.
As part of the Jeffrie team, we are so fortunate to be surrounded by an amazing group of people. Our Founder and CEO, Ashley, traveled to the prestigious Fed Ex sponsored Logistics Accelerator program last year in Memphis. We are finishing our accelerator program with HAX in San Francisco at the end of this week. We are also a part of the Retail Xelerator program in Minnesota.
We are grateful to have these organizations and most importantly, their people, to share with us their time and experience to coach us through this journey of startup life.
Thank you for everything that you do, we wouldn’t be here without you.
2. Taking an active interest in other startups.
Along the way, I’ve been sharing posts on our Facebook page of when Pixl went live on Kickstarter and sharing posts about Nextdoor and their partnership with KQED on Twitter. All with the common goal of making the world a better place to live in by raising the profile of other startups and showing our support for their cause.
Yes, we are a small startup and we may not have the followers of a large corporate company. However, even we have one or two people who have seen our posts and it has improved the quality of their life in some way, that’s all that truly matters.
To know that we have made a difference in this world is the legacy that I am sure many of us can relate to.
3. Taking small actions and releasing expectations.
The small actions that we can do every day are easy to do and also, very easy not to do. Every one of us has a special gift that we can use every single day, how can we utilize these gifts to keep moving forward? What if we were to just focus on taking the action without worrying about the result?
For me, I love talking to people and reaching out to share my experiences, so focusing on that keeps me going.
I love this quote from Darren Hardy, The Compound Effect:
“It’s not the big things that add up in the end; it’s the hundreds, thousands, or millions of little things that separate the ordinary from the extraordinary.”
What are the gifts that you offer to the world? How can you best use your gifts to make a difference in someone else’s life?
What small action can you do to make the lives of others better? Can you take an hour out of your week to help someone in need?
#payitforward
Thank you for reading! I look forward to connecting!
