“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”
Its Not Work Its Life #1 (my weekly email to our team)

That quote is attributed to the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche. Actually, he said it much more eloquently: “That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.” It is a quote we have all heard and some of us maybe even questioned — What does it mean?
Studies have shown that some trauma survivors report positive changes and enhanced personal development, called post traumatic growth (PTG). PTG refers to any beneficial change resulting from a major life crisis or traumatic event, but people most commonly experience a positive shift by having a renewed appreciation for life; adopting a new world view with new possibilities for themselves; feeling more personal strength; feeling more satisfied spiritually, and/or their relationships improve.
The past 6 months has been incredible tough and has had a profound impact on the company that we have been building as well as impacting many of us personally. As this hardship is finally about to come to an end I can now truly say that I understand what the meaning of the quote means as well as the results of the PTG study — how hardship and struggles actually makes you stronger and in most cases wiser. This does not remove or delete the struggles, worries, disappointments and other feelings that the hard period caused but when you come out of the period of a cold winter and the first spring sun hits you — all of that is forgotten and one has better knowledge and will be better prepared going into the next winter. It is a fact of life that it (life) goes in this rhythm…there will always be hard times followed by good times in a constant flow and believe any different is delusional.
The company that we have worked on building for the past 4 years need a big reset ..maybe even more than that — a Restart. Mistakes were made, wrong decisions takes, the path chose was not the right one etc… the matter of the fact is that I had been part of building a company and a culture that would not have been able to survive and sustain its self.
Now that we are given the opportunity to restart I want to correct mistakes of the past with regards to Team, Culture & Product.
The people that we are going to have on our team are going to be exceptional people, star performers, multipliers and out liners in some cases. With a strong and engaged team we must build a company culture and this is part of why I am doing this email to you all. I want to take a bigger role in building our new company culture and one element is this Friday email which I hope will inspire you, I will share our wins and leanings, aligning our vision and much more.
The fact that our old company was split into two made it impossible for me to be a more focal part of the culture that we built — I am going to say what culture we should have but I want to continually enforce our culture and make it become a way of life inside our company. The culture and values we create in our company and homes will lead to specific behaviors by our employees and family — for better or for worse. Therefore, it’s imperative that we be very clear and explicit about what we stand for in terms of each.
I call this series of emails ‘It’s Not Work It’s Life’ because this is what it is about to be an entrepreneur and belong to a startup — together we are going through this journey and from time to time all need to lean on each other because things gets hard and at other times we will celebrate like crazy our wins. I will be honest, share some of my learning, I will try to be inspirational and give tips/advice on personal growth.
This week — Do one thing that puts you outside your comfort zone.. Could be running a bit longer, Could be cooking a difficult dish..Anything! Its when we get outside our comfort zone that we grow as individuals and a happy life is about continues growing and developing as persons.
Have a great week.
Claus
