Why we’re destroying our company after 6 months
Evolving from Flux v1.0 to Flux v2.0
We’re changing direction. Refocusing on humans. Building a strong, digital business 💪
Right from the very start, on the day we shook hands in Dream Valley, me and Jon decided that Flux would be a company in flux. We decided that whenever things felt stale, or when we didn’t want to go to work any more, we’d stop, destroy, and rebuild.
We stole this term from our pals (and first customers) Sarah and Gee at Rinse FM. Rinse has policy of freshening up the DJ line-up periodically and replacing them with new ones. They have to stay fresh. They have to stay real. And reinvention is the only way.
Flux v2.0 is going to be awesome! 😆
So from today, Flux v1.0 will slowly shuffle towards its early grave, whilst Flux v2.0 will emerge resplendent from its ashes.
We’re making a bunch of products to help leaders, founders, and people who want to start their own thing. No nonsense. Just beautifully designed online and in-person experiences, full of smart thinking and hardcore doing.
We’re bored of working with uninspiring corporates. We’re bored of all the jargon and buzzwords. We’re bored of having to compromise on what we think is right, just to make a few £$€.
Here are a few things that are non-negotiable in Flux 2.0:
- We are a company** not a consultancy or a business*
- We work with people (customers) not clients (businesses)
- We make and sell products, mainly ones you can buy without needing an invoice
- We always say what we think, even if it means losing a customer
- We’re going to build this thing slow and strong and smart
- We only work with people who inspire and teach and challenge us
- We only work for people who want to be inspired and challenged by us
- We are remote-first, with as little flying as possible
- We always make time for love, sleep, and adventure
* BUSINESS is from the Middle English word ‘busy-ness’ and the Old English word ‘bisignis’ meaning ‘anxiety’
* COMPANY is from the Old French word ‘compaignon’ meaning ‘one who breaks bread with another’ — much less stressful
But guys, it was all going so well. What went wrong?
It has been awesome 🙂
The last 6 months at Flux have been awesome. We’ve never felt so inspired and pumped at work. We’ve met some amazing people through our Cells initiative (which will live on). We’ve built a solid company from basically nothing (£10k savings each + 2 laptops). We’ve made decent money without ever really properly selling ourselves (which has given us a nice buffer of cash that should last us into 2018). We’ve done some great work with awesome people, many of whom are now our buds.
We’ve travelled to beautiful places, slept in a van under the Golden Gate Bridge, walked through magical forests, surfed under the setting sun, skied on pristine alpine slopes, trekked through the Albanian countryside, and eaten like kings. We’ve written one book and edited another. And we’ve probably worked on average 30hrs per week.
It’s also been lame 🙃
But the last 6 months have also been lame. We’ve flown a lot, especially within Europe, and often for short trips. We’ve slipped into being a consultancy, which is something we said we’d never do (behind the scenes). We’ve spouted the same bullshit over and over again. We’ve compared ourselves to companies that we’re actually nothing like. We’ve compromised too often for our clients, sitting there and talking about cultural transformation instead of telling them all to just quit their crappy jobs.
We’ve spent too much time alone buried in our laptops, and not enough time together walking and talking. We’ve worked for some companies that are probably doing more harm in the world than good. And we’ve kind of lost sight of why it is that we started this company.
To be free. And to help others to be free. By helping them to be strong. And to build strong companies.
Don’t let your dreams be dreams…just do it 🗯
It feels like we’ve got the band back together. We’re doing exactly what we need to be doing right now to be happy, healthy, and to kick the world’s ass.
Flux v2.0 is going to be a freedom machine. Helping CEOs, leaders, founders, and people with ideas, to build their own freedom machines.
Cheers
Jim (& Jon)
