I see you.

Yeah you. You with the face. I think it’s pretty cool how you’re doing the thing you’re passionate about. You should probably stop editing yourself and keeping quiet, especially when a bunch of people around you told you to “get a real job” because you haven’t gotten to the point where things have stabilized.

Fuck that noise.

It’s pretty astounding how you’ve been making things work. Figuring out how to cut corners — that the cheapest calories that are vegetarian are from Taco Bell + how they know your x2 veggie fiesta burrito order at noon every day by now so that when you roll up in your beat-up honda civic they’ve got it teed up for you.

Yummy.

I love how you help others, particularly those that you see are just starting out. You see them about to jump off a cliff and try to coach them to at least flap their wings so it doesn’t hurt *too* much when they hit the bottom. There’s a ton of gratitude from people who tell you that you’re “so real” and “direct” and “honest.” I think you just don’t want them to experience the same kind of pain in the same way.

That’s quite kind of you.

You think to yourself that you’d be quite good on the other side of the table where it seems easier. At least you wouldn’t have to worry about going into debt and living on credit cards. You can spot winners from a mile away and know what a toxic personality looks like. The previous 40+ people you’ve had to hire and fire are a testament to that. The 7 years you’ve labored to build something real that solves real problems is a testament to that.

That’s a nifty thought.

I think above everything else you should be proud of yourself for still pushing. Just showing up consistently every day is hard. Getting out of bed is hard. Getting things done is hard. It always takes 4x as long and costs 10x as much as you think. Especially when you haven’t had the kind of support that you need.

I’m here to support you. I’m proud of you. I see you.

Sincerely,

Me