Over the last year, I’ve been more intentional about giving back to rising entrepreneurs. I try to help fill their knowledge and relationship gaps. I share my experiences and connect them with other people who can help. I remember how difficult the early segment of the journey was for me. Help was pivotal. I’m not sure that I would have progressed to the next segment without it.

One thing I’ve noticed in my mentoring and advising caught me off guard. Some early entrepreneurs don’t ask for help. When connected with people who want to help, they never make contact. I’m not the only one who’s noticed this. I’ve spoken with program managers at accelerators focused exclusively on helping early stage founders who’ve noticed a similar pattern.

I decided to think about the early stages of my own entrepreneurial journey. I was curious about whether I was guilty of the same behavior. I dug through old materials and correspondence and sure enough, I was! I didn’t ask for help after meeting people, or I took much longer to do so than I should have.

I think there are a variety of explanations. Bandwidth is the first. Early-stage founders are wearing ten hats and just don’t get around to everything. Imposter syndrome is the second. I was inexperienced. I felt embarrassed about asking certain questions. I was afraid people would realize how much I didn’t know or how little traction I’d made. I eventually got over this, which changed my life.

Founders should never feel ashamed to ask for help. It doesn’t matter how silly they fear their questions are. Anyone who’s made the journey and is offering to help knows better than to judge. After all, they were in the same place back in the day.

People with experience who want to help are a great resource that founders should take full advantage of. So many don’t ask for help that when you do, you stand out. In a good way. It shows that you’re willing to take action.

The next time you’re introduced to someone with experience who you have reason to believe wants to help, ignore that little voice in your head that urges caution (it’s the voice of fear). Ask them to help you with your most pressing obstacle. They’ll probably be glad you asked and delighted to help!

Today marked the end of my nineteenth week of working from home. Here are my takeaways from week nineteen:

• Month five – It’s been almost five months. This experience has been surreal and there’s no end in sight. Looks like I’ll be working from home for many more months. I won’t be surprised if I’m still doing it next year.
• Focus – A unique opportunity came up this week. I chose to focus on it and forego making progress in other areas. I’m glad I did. But next week, I’ll try a more balanced approach.
• Communication – I use Zoom and email every day, but I’m starting to wonder if there are other communication methods that would also be effective. I’ll do some research on this over the next few weeks.  

Week nineteen was a good week. No major takeaways.

I’ll continue to learn from this unique situation, adjust as necessary, and share my experience.

Today I discussed product–market fit strategies with a rising entrepreneur and another advisor. The entrepreneur is addressing in a unique way a problem she’s passionate about. The pandemic has disrupted her vision for solving it, though. Today we explored the feasibility of digitizing her solution. She referred to this idea as a “digital first, physical second” approach.

After the meeting, that characterization stuck with me. I thought about it. Before 2020, life was “physical first.” Most people shopped in brick-and-mortar places like malls and grocery stores. Online shopping was growing rapidly, but it was still secondary. People regularly met up with friends and family to socialize. Phone calls and other digital communication methods were common, but only when seeing someone wasn’t feasible. Work meetings often took place face-to-face. Some people even flew regularly to conduct meetings (salespeople and consultants, for example). Tools like Zoom and Google Hangouts existed and were used, but only when travel wouldn’t work. Students went to schools and universities for their education, even though e-learning tools have been around for a decade or so.

The world has been flipped. We’ve moved to a “digital first” society.

Like everyone else, I’m living this every day, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise. But hearing it expressed so simply and clearly opened my eyes. I now recognize how big a change we’ve made in a short time. This change has had an enormous impact and will reverberate through our society for the foreseeable future.

As entrepreneurs look to solve old problems in new ways, they should consider embracing a digital-first approach.

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A few years ago, I sold an extra vehicle. I’ve been a passionate car enthusiast since middle school, so it wasn’t an easy decision. Here’s my logic:

• I could drive only one car at a time. Owning more than one car was fun but felt wasteful.
• I wanted to simplify life by getting rid of unnecessary things that require time and energy to maintain. I decided I’d rather put that time and energy toward people and experiences that enrich life.
• I began walking to work, so I rarely drove even one car, much less two. If I drove at all, it was usually on weekends. And most weekends I took Uber for social outings to avoid having to park.
• I felt we were at the tail end of an economic cycle. I wanted to prepare for a downturn by reducing my expenses.

This was before the pandemic. Much of this logic is still valid, but some—using Uber, for instance—is up for debate.

Today I read an interesting KMPG report, “Automotive’s New Reality: Fewer Trips, Fewer Miles, Fewer Cars?” It discusses vehicle miles traveled (VMT) going forward. Here are a few highlights:

• A work-from-home norm could reduce commuting and VMT.
• Online shopping and delivery services (for groceries, for example) could reduce shopping trips and VMT.
• Reduced use of public transportation could increase consumer VMT.
• Will mobility services such as Uber and Lyft return to growth? Consumer comfort with mobility-as-a-service could affect consumer VMT.
• Reduced consumer VMT could increase commercial VMT and cause certain businesses (think UPS, FedEx, Amazon) to need more delivery vehicles.

I haven’t driven much in the last five months and I don’t see that changing for the rest of the year. I believe the pandemic is fundamentally changing human behavior. The old norms will cease to exist, and new norms are forming. I envision reduced consumer activity and more time at home. Socializing will be with more intimate groups of family and friends in homes.

Cars aren’t going away anytime soon, but I do think their role in people’s lives will diminish. Industries that support this new reality will grow: e-commerce, logistics, transportation and delivery, etc. Commercial VMT and employment opportunities in these industries will grow too.

What are your predictions about cars and VMT?

Today I caught up with a family member. One of the things we talked about was my habit of posting daily. Bob asked how long I’d been writing, how long I planned to write, and why I had decided to write every day. I told him that I’ve been writing for four months and that I plan to do it for at least a year (hopefully much longer) and explained my reasons. I get asked these questions a lot. Most people say, “That’s nice to know,” and the conversation moves on. Today was different.

Bob shared how my posts have affected him. I really enjoyed the feedback after writing every day for months with little idea of whether I’m doing anything other than whistling in the wind. Bob said he reads my posts every day on LinkedIn’s app. LinkedIn doesn’t provide stats on article impressions or views, so this was news to me. And he said that he has shared some of my posts. With no stats, I had no idea if I’d gotten any shares. Then he told me how my weekly work-from-home posts have helped him manage better. Those are the posts in which I track how many weeks I’ve worked from home (sadly, it’s been eighteen), describe my main observations during the week, and summarize my takeaways. I assumed this post didn’t resonate with others. It was designed to force me to reflect every week and be aware of the pandemic’s impact on my mental state and to be my “easy” post for the week. I thought it would bore people.

I found out that Bob has enjoyed my reflections so much that he’s borrowed the idea. He now reflects about things himself, both alone and with his team. They have a standing virtual conversation that’s become the highlight of their week. They share personal and professional thoughts and open up about their mental state. It’s become a substitute for lost water-cooler talk and brought the team closer.

My conversation with Bob was eye-opening, to say the least. Never in a million years would I have guessed that my posts had helped a team connect. Or that anyone reads them every day. When I began writing, it was to give back and help others by sharing my experiences and thoughts. I reflected on what I’d learned after 60 days. Today, I learned more. Bob helped me understand the reach of my writing and the impact it can have. I’m glad my posts add value to others’ lives, grateful for the experiences and opportunities that I’ve been blessed with, and encouraged to continue writing.

Next time you’re considering doing something positive for others but aren’t sure if it will be helpful . . . do it anyway. You could end up having a much bigger impact than you ever could have imagined!

Today marked the end of my eighteenth week of working from home. Here are my takeaways from week eighteen:

• Mental wellness – I’ve noticed that more people are discussing the pandemic’s impact on their mental state. Talking about this openly is a good thing. It’s encouraging to people who are struggling to know they’re not alone. I myself have had days when I struggled. I hope that we continue to discuss this topic at work and at home.
• Little wins – I really wanted a small win to celebrate, and I found one. A few weeks ago, I downloaded a new software tool. It’s extremely complicated and intimidating, so I never started using it. My goal was to use it daily. I accomplished that this week, which was encouraging. I plan to learn more about the tool so that I can take full advantage of everything it offers. This little win was a good way to end the week on a high note.
• Zoom – I like Zoom, but I find myself needing to schedule a break from it. Using it a lot in a day strains my eyes and leaves me mentally drained.  

Week eighteen was positive and pretty normal. No major takeaways this week. In two weeks, I’ll reach the five-month mark.

I’ll continue to learn from this unique situation, adjust as necessary, and share my experience.

I’ve been working with an entrepreneur for two months. She’s a developer with an app idea who could never find time to create an MVP to test her idea. We settled on a weekly cadence: she would email a group of advisors about her progress and ask for assistance if she needed it. The plan was simple but gave her the encouragement and accountability she needed to execute on her idea.

All was well for the first six weeks. In week seven, the pandemic affected her personally. She wasn’t able to focus and stopped sending the updates. She had stopped working on her app altogether. This was a huge red flag to me.

After hearing about everything she was juggling and her desire to make the app a reality, I made a recommendation: focus on one thing you can accomplish in a day or two. It doesn’t matter how small it is—it can be anything that moves you closer to your goal. Repeat every few days. The idea was that she could continue making progress while dealing with other responsibilities, and she’d have wins she could celebrate.

Sometimes even the best plans go awry. Life happens. It’s just the way the world works. At CCAW, there were many times when I felt like everything was going wrong at once. It was paralyzing and discouraging. Over time, I learned a few things:

• Focus on what you can control. Don’t dwell on things outside your control.
• Figure out how to keep making some kind of progress in small chunks. Celebrating small wins can change your perspective and give you a much-needed spark.
• Talk to credible people about what you’re experiencing. Keeping your feelings bottled up isn’t healthy. You’ll find that other people have been through similar things and can convince you there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
• No success story is up and to the right all the time. There’s always a period of struggle. This too shall pass.

The next time life prevents you from accomplishing your goals, find one small thing you can do quickly. And do it again in a day or two. Small wins will help you weather the storm!

Last Friday marked the end of my seventeenth week of working from home. Here are my takeaways from week seventeen:

• Path forward – I had good conversations about the future. I’m far from the only person thinking about what the rest of 2020 and 2021 will look like. People are mulling over how they can achieve their goals in creative ways given the pandemic.
• New companies – Lately I’ve spoken with many entrepreneurs who are working on starting businesses. I predict a surge of new companies in the next twelve to twenty-four months. Some of them will have a big impact on society. There are so many needs not being satisfied right now. The masses are actively seeking out new things to adopt—what a rare opportunity for entrepreneurs.
• Redistribution – The pandemic’s impact on commerce is uneven. Some sectors are thriving and having their best year ever. Others are struggling and businesses may shutter. A redistribution may be ongoing.

Week seventeen was a positive week. I paid attention to trends and stopped projecting what I think should be happening. I also thought more about how to move forward if the current situation is the new normal.  

I’ll continue to learn from this unique situation, adjust as necessary, and share my experience.

I’ve always been in the habit of asking myself a question: am I doing what I need to be doing? Lately, I’ve struggled to answer it. I usually compare what I’m doing today to what’s worked for me in the past. In recent months, I’ve compared what I’m doing today to what I did before COVID-19. I lifted weights four or five days a week to release stress and stay healthy. I traveled by plane every few weeks to maintain existing relationships and build new ones. I went to the office every day to focus on work. I ate out often because I was busy.

When the past is my baseline, the answer is no, I’m not doing what I need to be doing. It’s not that I don’t want to do these activities. I do, but I’m just not comfortable doing them in this environment. That got me thinking about my approach. Should the past be my baseline?

The world has changed so much over the last few months. Many things that were commonplace aren’t viable today. I decided that using a comparison that isn’t feasible doesn’t make sense. In fact, I think it’s unhealthy.

I’ve started to ask myself a different question: am I doing what I need to be doing in the current environment? I no longer use the past as a baseline. What matters is whether I’m getting what I need in the best way possible given the current reality. For example, I need to relieve stress and stay healthy. I’m not comfortable going to the gym, so weightlifting is out. Instead, I’m running outside. Well, it rains pretty often, so I don’t consistently run four or five days a week. Two or three days is more realistic. Since I’m not as active, I now eat home-cooked meals to keep calories down (take-out is full of them!).

Is running two or three days a week what I’m used to? No. Does it give me the same results as my old workout? No. Are running and eating home-cooked meals what I need to be doing now to stay healthy and relieve stress? Yes.

I realized that benchmarking my life against the past was doing myself a disservice. I couldn’t fully embrace the present—which, after all, is all I’ve got—because a part of me was always holding on to the past.

Next time you’re grading yourself, consider thinking about what you need now, in today’s circumstances. You may realize you’ve been shortchanging yourself.

Last Friday marked the end of my sixteenth week of working from home. Here are my takeaways from week sixteen:

• Month four – Hard to believe it’s been four months. If someone had told me I’d spend four months working from home and a few weeks completely locked down, I would’ve thought they were nuts. This has been an extreme exercise in human adaptability. We don’t like change, but we can deal with it when we must—no matter how drastic it is.
• Holidays – Spending holidays with friends and family is what I miss most. Time away from work just doesn’t feel the same when you can’t enjoy it with the people who matter most.
• Reflection – We’re halfway through 2020 and it’s been a crazy year. The second half of the year will be more of the same, if not worse. There’s been so much change in a short time. I hope there’s a light at the end of this tunnel.

Week sixteen was a good week. I’m glad it ended in a holiday weekend. That gave me time to reflect on the last four months and think about the rest of 2020. I don’t believe that pre-COVID-19 “normal life” will return. Getting back to it doesn’t seem realistic anymore. I also don’t think society will tolerate another lockdown; too many are resisting the very thought. In my opinion, something between those two extremes is likely. I think our current reality is our “new normal.” The longer we live in this “new normal,” the more society will accept it and learn to operate within it.

I’ll continue to learn from this unique situation, adjust as necessary, and share my experience.