"What do you think people get wrong about you?"
A recruiter asked me a few years ago, and what an incredible question!
- It caught me off guard
- It forced real introspection
- I discovered something about myself
My answer 👉 People misunderstand my humor and energy.
I can be pretty ridiculously excited and energetic at work 😅 it's a bit embarrassing actually.
It's easy to imagine someone reading that enthusiasm as a lack of seriousness.
A sober demeanor is much better suited for signaling seriousness. Alas, I'm genuinely having fun.
Incredibly dorky and ridiculous, but true!
At the same time, I'm quite serious about my work, career, and producing shareholder value 😜
Here's what that looks like.
In my free time:
- Reading tech analysts like Ben Thompson and Benedict Evans to understand how they view what's changing
- Reading earnings reports and transcripts to understand how public company moves are playing out and how they might affect the startup landscape
- Tracking which startups are shipping, raising, growing, and actually finding traction vs. just riding a hype train
- Trying new software constantly, not because I love shiny objects, but because I view understanding what's new, possible, and actually useful as part of my job
- Writing and thinking through what I'm learning so I actually develop a point of view
Seriousness is something I calibrate to the situation, it's not my default demeanor.
.jpg)
