Affinity With The Struggle

Okay, I don’t want to be sadistic about this so for some context check out James Walpool’s article about teams that grow through crises here. That is a great article to put things in perspective for teams, especially in startups.

Playing airsoft I have definitely experienced situations like this when trying to accomplish critical objectives with my team all while bb’s wiz over our heads. It’s a military simulation after all, and though nobody has ever actually died playing airsoft, there can be serious consequences:

1. Pain, it can physically hurt to get shot by these replicas
2. Defeating ego, when you train and plan but are ultimately defeated, it can suck. 
3. Failing your team as a leader, when you organize your team and get set to go then make a poor decision that costs important objectives you feel very responsible for any mistakes. 

Having crises/stressful situations regularly has helped shape me into a very resilient person in games, with my personal business, and in California with Yoshi. 

‘Aren’t you taking the ideas from a game bit far?’

Let me lay out what I’m trying to do currently and give you a better idea of what other stressors reinforce these concepts AND why I love them.

Currently, I am building out the website for N.O.V.A. This involves revisiting my very loose knowledge of web design, throwing it all out the window, starting all over, and making it better all while blending our best content into an easy to use and pleasant to view user experience. Oh, and I want to digitize our waiver to go paperless along with a point of sale system (I’ve never done either of these please message me if you know how to, thanks). 

I’m also the lead video editor and media consultant for N.O.V.A. Making clean cut content that conveys who we are and what we do is on my plate. Yes, editing videos takes forever and it can be a real pain to learn all effects and text elements. Not to toot my own horn but uh fricken beep beep the end product is super cool. Plus the videos are great for marketing and knitting the community together.

Psst hey, if you know a good way to make thumbnails for youtube then message me on any social media.

Hitting a wall some weeks at Yoshi has driven me to sit down with my manager multiple times and develop new strategies for outreach.

I want to be honest here, I have learned a lot, but have made Yoshi $0 of profit with my sales efforts. That. Sucks. Creating real monetary value with my sales endeavors is my focus every day. I do truly enjoy working for this company and want to see it grow immensely because I believe in the service.

Waking up at 4:20 am to work out before work at 6 am has been a real trip too.