…moving from consulting to a start up and would like to know how to best position herself in order to build the necessary skill set and make the transition to VC in the longer term (sales & ops, biz dev, sales etc).

start-ups are not stepping stones

I really don’t know what to say to this. People who start-up suffer, they grind, they obsesses, they push against the way the world is because they believe they can change it– for the better. You cannot survive this if you are not driven by passion and you will not do well if you are focused on what is next rather than what is now. Working at a start-up can open lots of doors — if you crush it. But if you view it as a stepping stone in your perfectly planned, career management optimized life plan — you will fail. Doors will close.

When I hear this type of multi-step plan I want to be helpful, but I struggle. I think the most successful people find ways to always pursue the opportunity they are most passionate about at that moment. Life is too short to spend years “learning the necessary skillset” to do what you actually want to do. You can be successful at a job if your motivation is to build the necessary skill set to make the transition to something else. If you want to be a VC, or anything else, then do that. Don’t waste a start-up’s time and money by optimizing for your future instead of the future of the company.

When I joined AND 1, I saw the opportunity to work on sneakers, a life long passion, and to play hoops at lunch, another life long passion. When I joined the footwear department, it was a department of 2 (me and a co-founder of the company) and I spent my first week organizing a storage closet and making photo-copies of design sketches. I loved it. I loved looking at the sketches and I loved being in a closet full of shoes. I also loved playing ball at lunch everyday and talking trash with a bunch of other young, smart people working their asses off to be part of the number one basketball company in the world.

I had no idea what I would do next and I didn’t care. We ended up at close to $200M in revenue and I played my part, but I never could have been part of this journey if I was motivated by anything other than love of the game.

When I left to build a fitness gaming company, I knew it would be hard (maybe impossible) but I was compelled. I could not help myself. I needed to work on the idea because I could not think of anything else. If I had thought starting that company would have helped me get a job in VC, we never would have pivoted from triathlon training software to home fitness games; We would have quit when we couldn’t get developer kits from Microsoft for X-box; We would have closed the doors when NIKE chose to work with Sony (instead of with us) on a fitness game; We would have given up when the gaming retailers said no and we never would have gotten Nordstrom or the fitness video buyers as Best Buy and Wal-Mart to say yes. If anyone on our team had been looking forward to their next job, we never would have raised money, built the product, sold over 100k copies and helped a bunch of people discover a personalized, interactive, goal-oriented home fitness experience…we would have just failed…sooner.

If you are a second year MBA and you are going to McKinsey or Goldman, great. You have a job. Enjoy. If not, spend the break getting back in touch with your heart and forgetting the strategic idea of necessary skill sets and career trajectory. Come back in the spring understanding the career safety net that lives in the risk mitigating degree you just spent 24 months earning and be ready to pursue a passion – be ready to jump.

When you want to talk about that, how to do it, where to start, I bet you will find lots of MBA alumni, including me, ready and willing to help. If you are still trying to figure out the stepping stone game to the end game that you can’t define because it is 5 years out…maybe talk to career management instead…

A mentor and friend that will be dearly missed

I spent yesterday at a memorial service for one of the great men I have had the opportunity to call a friend. Greg was the spirit of Haverford College and he was a mentor to me, to most of my friends and to my wife. You can read more about him here.

When I was at Haverford, Greg was the Director of Athletics and I got to know him because I played hoops and my roommate played baseball. However, my fondest memory of Greg has nothing to do with sports. He helped me figure out how to answer the question, “What if…?” and I will never forget it. Spring of my senior year I was trying to decide if working for AND 1 made sense or if I should go to Wall Street. I needed advice so I went to Greg’s office about once a week for a month. Finally, a little frustrated with my inability to decide, Greg said something like, “Look, there are probably 1 million people out there who could have made me happy for the rest of my life. I was lucky enough to meet one and grab the chance to marry her. I am happy. You will not be happy if you worry about what if but you will be happy if when you find something that brings you joy, you grab it.”

I worked at AND 1, traveled all over the world, I married my college girlfriend, we moved to Portland, OR, started a company, killed the company, moved back to Philly, my wife started a company (her second), I got an MBA and took a new job in a new career. Over the 11 years since school I have been happy the whole time except for the times when I have spent more time on “what if?” than on grabbing happiness. No surprise, Greg was right and always will be.

When you know it, you know. Have the strength to follow your instincts and when you are compelled to do something, do it with all your heart. Happiness will follow.

Friends this fall