I was talking to my Crash colleague Dave last night about the questions investors ask of companies.
They want to know what the problem is, how big the market is, why the time is now, and why you are the team to do it. That last one is my favorite because it’s the easiest for me to answer.
There are several ways to answer ‘Why you’? One is to demonstrate that no one in the world has more expertise in the area. You can show your unique skills and experience that make you the obvious choice to solve the problem. That’s not my approach because it’s not what I believe.
There’s someone out there better than me at everything I’m sure. There’s someone with a more impressive skill list or set of experiences or markers of expertise.
But there’s no one in the world with the calling I have.
I answer with the truth. Why me? Because I was born to do this, have been relentlessly pursuing it my whole life, and will do it until the day I die and neither you nor anyone else can stop me. And I will succeed one way or another. That’s why me.
My purpose in life is to help make people free. And the loss of freedom usually takes its first biggest step at that point when people are trying to figure out their careers. It’s the easiest time to get scared, give in to social status pressure, and take a passive posture where you set the tone for a life dictated by others instead of you. It’s too easy to do stuff you hate or float downstream just to get by because you don’t feel in control of the process of finding and getting a job.
But you are in the driver’s seat. Always. You don’t need anyone else’s bullshit credentials or status or approval. You are “Me, Inc.” and you can take control and learn what you want on your own terms, and create value in the market by boldly selling your skills, and craft a career one meaningful step at a time.
That’s why Crash exists. To help people discover and do what makes them come alive so they can live a little more free.
I’ve spent my whole life on this calling. It’s taken many forms as I’ve learned and tested and tried everything. And it will never stop.
I often feel like Frodo Baggins. All these powerful Wizards and Soldiers and Kings and Elves know there’s a big problem. I’m just a dude from the Shire with no particular expertise or weaponry, but I’m the one who’s gonna carry that effing ring into the fire.
That’s why me.