We celebrate today the first anniversary of our company. By looking back I see how hard, and at the same time how exciting it was to embrace such a challenge.
Being an entrepreneur is sometimes more like a consequence rather than a decision. Of course it takes a great deal of thinking and decision making to go for it, but these are only fragments of the big process that in my case began long before I even realised what I really wanted to to with my professional life. In my previous job I was happy with the relationships I developed with my colleagues and most of the projects I worked for were successful. I was in the company basically since its inception and faced its failures as if they were my own and cheered with its successes just like a father cheers with his son’s new achievements.
Besides all that, there was something that was not perfectly aligned with this picture. In the beginning it was easy to ignore it. I was just too excited and too committed to the company to let it spoil my mood. As the time passed, however, that small imperfection just grew bigger and bigger, to the point it was just impossible to ignore it. And then it happen: it made me decide to set a different course and start a new journey, the journey towards Bitmaker! It simply made me an entrepreneur.
What am I talking about? I’m talking about respect. I’m talking about acknowledging the effort people put on their job. I’m talking about… being grateful. Grateful to the people that have made sacrifices for a project they took as their own, because that’s the only way a great company can survive. Of course I’m not saying every person working in a company has this level of commitment to his job. I’m not even arguing everyone should be like that. I’m just saying that when a company is fortunate enough to have people with this level of commitment, they should be treated as heroes and not as replaceable parts. And that makes a hell of a difference in the DNA of a company. It is the thin line that separates truly successful companies from those which are just a bunch of people working together and that sooner or later might start sinking along the shore.
People should be nurtured, should be taken care of. People should matter! That’s what a great company should aim for! And even when some of the people that work with you decide to set their own course and follow their way, don’t act like they didn’t matter to you! Support them! Give them advice! Make sure they will be ok, because that’s the minimum you can do for people that gave you so much of themselves!
So, if anyone sees me behaving like a douchebag, please kick me in the ass and remind me how different we are at Bitmaker!
Happy anniversary everyone!!!!
