This was my year… And it was awesome!
I once heard someone say that entrepreneurship and start-up life are a lot like raising a baby: “Lots of shit, tears, and tantrums”. After one year: I get that now! But MYGOD isn’t it satisfying.
I’ll guide you through my 1-year journey and the 3 takeaways I got as a people person in an ever-changing startup environment. In my own way… A bit sarcastic a bit funny, not a lot of difficult words and a lot of emotions, because yeah, that’s who I am and I accept that now. #YESGUURL
Off-site to Sardinia
Being emotional is not a bad thing!
I’m that girl that starts crying in a full room because one of the people of her team reached their personal goals. I’m the girl that feels everyone’s pain and everyone’s happiness. I think they call it high sensitivity now. People are dealing with stuff you don’t know, every single day but I do know. Because I feel. I remember someone asking me on a job interview: “Describe yourself in a quote” and all I could think about was: “I will always be more of a lover than a fighter”. And I remember my family saying that you don’t say stuff like that because it’s a sign of weakness, a sign that you will not work hard to reach your goals. Well obviously, IT’S NOT A SIGN OF WEAKNESS.
It’s what makes me who I am here at Osmosis and It’s exactly where I need to be. I remember my first month here and how people already made me feel welcome and at ease. But I never expected this immense growth. Personally I finally accept that emotion is not a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of power.
I’m super proud of every single person in this team and how they embrace emotions in such a way that giving and receiving feedback, dealing with conflict, leadership and humbleness are becoming key requirements to join the Osmosis group.
Good things take time!
We’ve grown not only in knowledge but also in people. And then some people left again…
It’s not something we spread on all our social media accounts and it’s most definitely not something we are proud of. Because we do acknowledge that we’ve grown way too fast. It’s something you read in a lot of books about start-ups, and it happened to us too.
It was not that they were not great people or that we are an awful company. For me, it was all about managing expectations.
I took this one as a personal failure and started looking into methods to grow in a more sustainable way. I think we got a pretty cool framework now. I promise I’ll write a blog about it when we test it and verify it.
If it’s not a Hell Yeah, it’s a no!
I need to admit that I stole this quote from one of our founders. But I live by this one. I used to feel insecure about giving my honest opinion because I often felt I would hurt someone’s feelings by disagreeing. But I’ve learned that being fair doesn’t always mean that you are the nicest person in the room (people who know me know that this is not easy for me). It’s easy to agree with everything and it’s easy to avoid a discussion when you are against a certain decision but is that fair?
For all of you, who feel trapped in a certain role or expectation pattern… Take this one as your life motto and things will get a lot easier!
I feel super grateful for everything I’ve learned over the past year and I’m curious what our next year will bring.
I’ll end this blog with my email signature that has become a bit of a meme over here ;)
P.S. I’m looking for someone who can help me in the day to day operations of Osmosis. Want to join the team? Slide into my DM’s!
HIGH FIVE
CARO
