Today marks the end of my seventy-eighth week of working from home (mostly). Here are my takeaways from week seventy-eight:

• Inbox zero – I’m more effective when I work through my inbox daily. I haven’t been doing as good a job with this as I’d like. This week, though, I was more consistent about checking something as done, delegating it, or deferring it to a later date (i.e., snoozing it to remove it from my inbox).  
• Perspective – I focused on getting the perspective of credible people this week. Their feedback was insightful, and I’m glad I did this. Looking forward to continuing it.
• Focused – I had clear written goals that I needed to accomplish by the end of the week. I made a point of revisiting that list every morning, which helped me focus on the activities that mattered most. The week ended up being productive in the ways that I’d aimed for.

Week seventy-eight was active. Lots of good things going on. I was more intentional and focused this week, which paid off.

Today I listed in on a conversation between two guys named Chris and Tom about a topic I’m interested in. The more I heard, the more amazed I was at how deep Chris’s knowledge is. Toward the end of the chat, I learned that Chris is a 20-year-old recent college dropout. He wasn’t satisfied with what he was learning in school. He felt his professors weren’t up-to-date on the latest trends and thinking. His education wasn’t equipping him to navigate what he was seeing in the real world every day. So, he dropped out and started educating himself by reading books and consuming online content from thought leaders. And he used his newly acquired knowledge to get a job in the field he wants to be in. Most likely he’s on his way to a lucrative career.

That may sound extreme, but stories like Chris’s will quickly become commonplace. More students will choose to bypass a traditional four-year education for a more customized path. They will go deeper into the topics that interest them much faster and begin to apply their new skills in the real world much faster than previous generations.

I suspect this dynamic will have a big impact on the workforce, as well as other parts of life. I’m not exactly sure how yet, but I’m curious to watch this play out.

I had two unrelated conversations today in which the same issue was discussed: knowledge sharing. Both people I talked with believe that a knowledge-sharing deficit is having a negative impact in various areas. In some instances, it’s widening existing gaps; in others, it’s slowing the pace of progress.

When I started my company, my knowledge gaps around start-ups and technology were massive. I was lucky enough to be able to surround myself with other founders who were open to sharing their knowledge. I credit their willingness to share with accelerating the success of CCAW. Without them, I think it would have taken twice as long for us to reach $10 million in revenue—if we ever had.

Sharing knowledge can have a profound impact. My founder journey is a testament to that. For that reason, I try to share what I’ve learned (for whatever it’s worth) through daily posts and other means. I hope it’s helpful to some people and helps them get closer to achieving their goals.

I caught up with a founder who’s working on a big problem. Things haven’t gone as he planned, and we talked about why. He had thought he was well equipped to solve the problem, but now, after reflecting on setbacks, he understands how certain blind spots in key areas and the industry hindered him. He’s working to address them and continue building.

I can relate to this founder. As an early founder, I learned the same lesson. I too thought I was well equipped to build my company until things didn’t go as planned. I didn’t have anyone else to blame, so I took a hard look at myself. I realized that I didn’t know everything and needed help. Over a period of time, I got a coach, joined EO Accelerator, and recruited other leaders into the company. I tried to fill my blind spots as best I could. Luckily, it worked. Things turned around and we scaled to over $10 million in annual revenue.

Everyone has blind spots, and that’s okay. If you’re a founder, it’s important to understand what yours are so you can find alternative ways to see everything clearly.

I was catching up with someone who had recently received unexpected bad news. He had all the reason in the world to be angry, but he wasn’t. He was focusing on everything else that was going well and what awaits him once he makes it through a tough time. I’m happy he has such a positive outlook.

Two people can look at the same situation and see completely different things. The difference is often one of perspective. We can’t always control what happens to us, but we can control how we think about it. Our thoughts control our actions. In turn, our actions can affect the situation we’re in or at least what happens to us next.

No one bats a thousand. We all strike out at some point. It’s just how the game of life works. When I strike out, I try to keep a positive outlook. So one strikeout doesn’t lead to a lifetime of strikeouts, I move on. I don’t want to lose the game of life.

I spent time reading an interview of a tech CEO today. He discussed his market and why he’s excited about his company’s growth prospects. Each of the largest players in his industry has no more than 4% market share, yet a few of them do over $100 billion in annual revenue each. It’s a massive market. Large businesses can be built serving a small fraction of it. It’s certainly not a winner-take-all market: there will be multiple winners. This CEO thinks his company can grow rapidly for many years to come without owning a significant percentage of the market.

Market size is something early founders should consider. The size of the market (along with other factors) can have a big impact on the company’s ability to achieve sustained rapid growth. Big or rapidly growing markets are great for building high-growth companies. Small or declining markets usually make sustainable high growth much more difficult.

I watched a video featuring a CEO who’s leading a publicly traded insurtech company. He shared his view that disruptors aren’t causing disruption. Instead, he believes that humanity is going through a period of transformation unlike any we’ve seen before. We’re seeing unprecedented change happening at a pace that’s exponential because of technology. This shift has created a wave of disruption that disruptors are riding. As he put it, disruption is causing disruptors.

At CCAW, we built technology that allowed us to offer a better experience to customers at a lower price. Because of the technology, we could do so consistently and in a way that was scalable. I didn’t view CCAW as a disruptor. We were a company bringing much-needed change to an antiquated space via technology.

We’re currently living through a period of stunning transformation because of technology. Over the next decade, we’ll continue to see expansive, blisteringly fast change in human society. One result will be a period of unheard-of entrepreneurial prosperity.

Today marks the end of my seventy-seventh week of working from home (mostly). Here are my takeaways from week seventy-seven:

• Resilience – I thought a lot about this and had some conversations about it. Life is full of ups and downs. Resilience helps people make it through the downs and is key to outsize success. It’s a big part of entrepreneurial success, for sure.
• Atlanta – This week we saw another big win for Atlanta’s tech community with Mailchimp’s acquisition announcement. Excited to see the city getting some much-deserved acknowledgment.

Week seventy-seven was a busy, steady one. I made good progress in some important areas. Aiming to continue that momentum next week.

Today I listened to a founder tell his origin story. He had a dream as a child, and he put everything into making it come true. In high school, he was crushed when that path was closed to him. In college, he decided to start a company around that childhood passion. He went to school full-time and worked two jobs to bootstrap his start-up. He didn’t have the technical background to build the product he envisioned, so he taught himself the tech skills he needed. Eventually, he left college early to work on his company full-time. Fast forward a few years, and he now has customers lining up to give him over $1 million in annual revenue.

This founder has a big vision for his company. It hasn’t been an easy road, and he’s had to make significant sacrifices along the way. At every step, he’s proven that he’ll do whatever is necessary to turn his vision into reality. He’s all in. I have no doubt that he’ll become successful, and I’m excited to watch him continue his journey!

I listened today to a founder discuss his marketing strategy. He has an established company that’s doing over $10 million in annual revenue—so, not a start-up. His strategy involves growing the company’s online community—he wants current customers, prospective customers, employees, and anyone else passionate about his space to participate.

I’m a fan of online communities and believe community-led growth will become an effective long-term growth strategy for companies. My conversation today is another data point that supports this belief.

Digital communities have been around for quite some time, but I think we’ll see them go from nice to have to must have for growing companies. I’m not sure how long this will take to play out, but I’ll be following the evolution closely.