I was sent this photo the other day by my friend Ricky.
It was taken in Carnaby Street in 2019 and, aside from the fairly spectacular jacket, what struck me was how bloody carefree I look.
Maybe that’s nostalgia doing its thing. 2019 certainly wasn’t perfect. I had problems. The world had problems. Business had problems.
But none of us knew what was coming.
Within months, the world effectively shut down. Businesses disappeared overnight. People lost jobs, livelihoods and loved ones. We learnt words like furlough, social distancing and lockdown, and things we’d taken completely for granted - going to the pub, getting on a plane, hugging someone - suddenly disappeared.
Eventually, the world started again. But I’m not convinced we ever really went back.
Something shifted. Certainly in me.
I think I became more conscious of time. More protective of it. More aware that continually putting things off until one day is a fairly dangerous way to live your life.
It changed the way I thought about business too.
For years, the language of business seemed relentlessly about more.
More revenue. More people. More offices. More growth.
I’m not sure I see it quite like that anymore.
I still want to build things. I’m still ambitious. I still get excited by a new idea and probably always will. But I’m far more interested now in building a business around the life I want than building my life around a business.
I want freedom. I want to enjoy what I’m building while I’m building it. I want time with the people I care about. I want to work with people I like. And I want to be able to disappear occasionally without the whole thing falling apart.
Increasingly, I think that is success.
The world feels heavier now than it did in 2019. Maybe some of that is simply getting older and noticing more. But we’ve also lived through a pandemic, wars, political upheaval, economic uncertainty and technology moving at a pace that makes the future feel both incredibly exciting and slightly terrifying.
I can’t control much of that.
What I can control, to some extent, is the little world I build around myself.
Maybe that’s the biggest thing the last few years have taught me. Build the business. Chase the ideas. Make some money. Take a few risks.
But don’t forget to enjoy your life while you’re doing it.
And every now and again, wear a ridiculous jacket.