3 Promises You Should Make Before Accepting a Job at a Startup
How I dealt with ambiguity and inexperience in my first startup rodeo.
Now this is the story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down…
No, just kidding. It’s not really but I bet you’ll have that song stuck in your head all day.
This is, however, the story of how I went from being a Project Coordinator to the Director of Marketing in my first 6 months working for the SF Deltas. The truth is that I have no business being the Director of Marketing of anything really, let alone for a professional soccer team in one of the world’s greatest cities. To this day, I still have no idea why my CEO, Brian Andrés Helmick, decided to hire me because there was literally nothing on my shallow resume that said I would succeed.
Matter of fact, I can remember the week leading up to my first day on the job. I was so insecure. I was certain I wouldn’t actually be good enough, and then I would get fired, and then I wouldn’t be able to pay rent, and then I would have to move back in with my parents… yes, I really do overthink things to this degree. I know. Imagine being in my head.
In the face of this challenge I either had to run away and quit or face it head on. I’ve been an athlete my whole life so my competitive spirit won out and the result was that I made myself 3 promises:
1. I would never, ever quit.
2. I would always do my best.
3. I would give absolutely everything I had for a full calendar year.
These may seem like simple promises but if you actually commit to them, I can assure you that you will not fail. If you never quit, you always do your best, and you give all you have (I’m talking sleep, social life, and at times working out… everything) there’s nothing more you can do.
Word to the Wise: For those of you crying out “what about work-life balance?” I 100% respect your concern and even your boundaries but I would highly advise against joining a new startup especially in the company’s first few years of existence.
These 3 promises have allowed me to accomplish some incredible things over the last 18 months. This doesn’t mean that it wasn’t also extremely difficult and challenging. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been brought to tears from work alone during this period of time (I put it somewhere around 5). Does that mean I’m emotional? Yeah, probably, but it also means that I really care. Like a lot. In truth, the reality is that working at a startup is REALLY, REALLY hard. There aren’t any roadmaps or blueprints. You build everything from scratch for the first time. There is so much learning and growth and there are big wins but there are also monumental losses. I’m talking moments when you fall flat on your face in front of everyone. The amount of times I’ve taken on a project that I had no relevant experience in over the last year and half is insane. From building our website (not the current one), to setting up our email campaigns, designing and producing merchandise, to making big budget decisions. I still can’t believe some of the things I’ve been able to tackle along the way.
I’ve had some life changing experiences and opportunities, like helping to secure the rights to use our home stadium (Kezar Stadium in Golden Gate Park) and figuring out how to allow fans to vote on our home kit. The 3 promises I made myself before accepting the job, truly put me in a position to excel.
To date the scariest project I faced was trying to produce a culture video to help tell the world why we are, not just who we are. Why was it scary? Because the parameters were nearly impossible. It needed to be emotional. It needed to explain all that we were in a short amount of time. I had a tiny budget to split between two different projects and on top of that everything needed to be done in 2 weeks time. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to deliver but I went back to my 3 promises and got to work on a script. These were 2 of the craziest weeks of my life. A huge shoutout to my team who helped carry my normal workload so I could focus on knocking this thing out. Here’s the result:
As we face a new chapter in the life of the organization, the challenges haven’t gotten easier. If anything, they’ve gotten much more complex and on top of that I have a lot more responsibility today then I did back then. But looking back, if I could have said one thing to myself it would have been to enjoy these moments! Every single one of them. The wins and the losses alike. As the great Fresh Prince (well Will Smith but we’ll always see him as the Fresh Prince) said…
“God put all the best things in life… on the other side of Maximum Fear.”
-Will Smith
Join the ∆ Makers and help us make San Francisco the world’s next great soccer city.
