Chasing Shiny Things

I remember early on when I started my company, Teysha, I had literally no idea what to expect more than 2 or 3 weeks down the road. I likened it to driving at night on a super hilly road, where your headlights could only show a few feet ahead. Would it be a crazy steep up-hill, or a super fast and easy down-hill? Who could ever know? I had to quickly learn how to live with this daily uncertainty and how to use it to fuel me.

As the company progressed, I began to have a much better sense of what was coming down the line. From annual production cycles, design, merchandising, and events, I began to have quite a different flow and steadiness to my routine and some sense of predictability.

However, throughout that time, I have found myself in need of a “Shiny Thing” to be chasing. It’s a big partnership, idea, product, or opportunity that is very audacious, but that I have to pursue in order to keep myself energized and inspired. Usually, if and when I reach that Shiny Thing, I realize that it didn’t quite transform everything, it didn’t really make my life 100x easier, and no, it didn’t really make the company “take off”. Instead, it’s the buildup and the incremental, small achievements and partnerships and pursuits that really make a difference.

Even more than just chasing Shiny Things, I have also learned that some times, that Shiny Thing could actually be a bad thing for the company and I should really reject it, even if they wanted me. Wow, a million-dollar investment? Sounds amazing! Until I think deeply about what that means for my personal responsibilities, the strain on the company, how fast we can actually scale, and what is expected in return with an investment of that size. I am learning to not be afraid to trust my intuition and to perhaps forgo some larger opportunities in favor of going steadily along and, hopefully, outlasting.

So cheers to Shiny Things, for giving me something down the line to try and tackle, and for teaching me when I get to it that sometimes, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be!