We had the pleasure of being re-inspired the other day. Re-inspired? What does that even mean? Is it even a word? Well, you know inspirations, they happen all the time; you see them, hear them and they touch you at the core. If you’re a business owner, like we are, then it’s safe to bet that at one point you were inspired to start doing whatever it is you’re doing. Now sometimes that gets old and dull and you get inspired to do something else, and that’s okay. That isn’t what happened to us. We still love every minute of what we do but we were fortunate to get that “shot in the arm” so to speak and be re-inspired at what we do by some young men we met with.
Meetings are typically different here at Three Ring Focus. Hell, we have a bar in our conference room so it we don’t have typical meetings to begin with, but in this case it was really different. We sat there in a meeting looking across the table at three 18-year-old seniors in high school ready to start a company. It was like the 3 of us were looking back 10 years ago and talking to ourselves. You could see some nervousness, some inexperience, some trepidation but more importantly there was that passion, that energy and excitement and confidence in what they could do and what they will do. It was invigorating to see and hear. I felt like I was able to warn myself of all the mistakes we made early on and I could probably sit here for hours and write out all the advice we gave them about starting a company, but that’s a blog for a different day. And yes, while the 18 year old me wanted one of those beers from the bar, the 28 year old me was smart enough not to offer it…
The point of this blog is to encourage you to find that re-inspiration. Sometimes that drive and energy get lost in all the other bullshit of work. In fact when you stop and think about it, all that bullshit is the “work” part of your business. The office politics or government interference or money issues or whatever else gets in the way of you enjoying what you do. We love what we do. We love designing websites and print material and seeing the looks on their faces when they see their business come to life. We love sitting down with clients who are looking for answers about how they can get more business and finding those answers for them. For us, that’s not work. We enjoy it. For you, it’s that passion you have that you’re lucky enough to get paid for. Whether it’s fixing cars or painting homes or healing others, it’s about what you love to do. It’s the old adage “if you do what you love you’ll never work a day in your life” and that couldn’t be any more true. Unfortunately sometimes we all let “work” get in the way and cloud up what we love to do. Fortunately for us, these young men gave us an opportunity to stop for a minute, clear away all the bullshit and remember what our inspiration was. I encourage you all to stop for a minute and think back to when you started your company and why you did it. I hope that passion was never lost, but if it was, try to recapture that youthful enthusiasm again! There is nothing quite like it.