As of around sometime last week, probably in the middle of the night, I have lived back in NYC and worked for this company for 4 years. I think that makes it the longest professional commitment of my entire life. In fact, my work here represents over 12% of my entire lifespan. Sobering!
It also marks my 20th year as a New Yorker, in one form or another.
4 years ago, I got on a plane and flew into a completely unknown future. I came to New York on New York’s terms – the empty-pocketed, full-o-dreams story this city loves to tell and re-tell. The “star is born” type of story. Annie, and all that.
I arrived here without a job, or a portfolio, or a place to live. I had about enough money for a flight back to Texas if I left within a week. Past that, there was no turning back. I showed up at
TBG without knowing what the word “comp” meant, or what a “deck” was. I had spent the previous 14 months working as a cashier at Whole Foods while telling companies what they should do in my nascent consultancy,
Youth of Tomorrow. I had almost zero plan on what I was going to do here.
But I could draw, that’s the truth. And The Barbarian Group needed some help. So I took a 2 week freelance gig here, . A week into it, I got an offer.
There’s a phrase for how I came to work here:
painting the target around the arrow. When I was offered the job, it wasn’t because I fit into a neat little job description that happened to be open. I wasn’t an ideal candidate. But what I had was a sort of unique combination of skill sets, experience, perspective and opinion (actually,
LOTS of opinion) that and and thought would be valuable for the future of this company
1.
And I was, truth be told, an chance for
TBG.
I was a gamble – an investment that probably wouldn’t pan out. But maybe it would break even
2.
4 years on, I can’t describe my time here in NYC as anything but a total success. It hasn’t always been easy, and there have been some difficult spots for sure, but I sit here now, 4 years older, knowing that getting on the plane was the right thing to do. It remains the scariest, hardest, bravest, and saddest moment. But it was the right thing.
There’s some old saying that I think about a lot:
leap, and the net will appear. I’ve never been real good at that. But every time I’ve trusted enough to try, it’s worked out.
Who knows what the next leap will bring?
Here’s a bonus – our office on Broadway about 6 months after I started.
1 A little Wallacian footnote here: When I started, TBG NYC was about 15 people. The office still had a shower and a bed in it from when Rick would stay here before he had an apartment here or lived here. Now, when i look around, I don’t even know everyone’s name (though I’m trying). It’s amazing how much bigger and more dynamic this company has become.
2 There’s a lesson to be learned here, young entrepreneurs and startups – but I’m going to let you figure out what it is.
1 comment