getting her feet underneath her, I
hustled as a way of life. I looked forward
to the minute when my kids drifted off
to sleep because finally, I could get
some work done. If my candle had had
sixty ends, I would have burned them
all; I believed in Noonday’s mission
that much. And while I honestly
wouldn’t trade those glory days for
anything in the world, I recognize how
unsustainable they were in the end.
This business was my fourth baby;
could others be trusted to keep it alive? In Guatemala, a weaver’s most valuable
possession is her backstrap loom, a
portable weaving device that can be
worn on the hips while the weaver goes
about her daily life. Some of the most
beautiful pieces I’ve seen have been
weaved this way, and yet if you focus
on the backside of the woven fabric, all
you’ll see is a tangled mess of zigzaggy
colors, stray strings, and knots. It’s
when you turn it over that you see how
those threads have come together to
form a breathtaking design. And so it
goes with our lives. You may think this
season you’re in will last an eternity—
and when that season involves dirty
diapers, do I ever feel your pain. I spent
a few years of adulthood persistently
damp either from using baby wipes to
blow my nose or from using nursing
pads to dam me up. That season is
hard. And yet, it’s still a season: it’s
here, and then it’s gone. My start-up
season needed to be gone now. My
leadership needed to mature. And so,
over time, I added back in monthly
therapy appointments. I showed up at
the gym again. I stashed my iPhone
and laptop in an out-of-reach spot
from 5:00 p.m. until the next morning.
And the net effect of these important
practices was that by pulling back in
In truth, it was time to look in the
rearview mirror and put the pedal-to-
the-metal start-up lifestyle behind me
before it utterly ran me down. I needed
to transition out of the sprint phase
of the start-up and into the marathon
phase of the growing company. If I’ve
learned anything across the past seven
years, it’s that the twists, turns, and
trials that we begrudge in the moment
serve a significant purpose in the end. If I’ve learned
anything across the
past seven years,
it’s that the twists,
turns, and trials
that we begrudge in
the moment serve a
significant purpose in
the end.
Looking back, I see that during those
early years I was not practicing wise
pacing and I didn’t even know what
wise pacing was. Even after Noonday
could afford to pay other people a
salary, letting go and delegating was
an entirely different story. I feel like
writing an apology note right now
to some of our first team members.
So. Many. Midnight. Texts. “Did you
remember to get that done?” I’d write.
“Are you sure that everything’s on
track?”
And then, that team’s all-time favorite:
“Let’s go in this new creative direction
for the shoot that is tomorrow.”
40 • Solutions
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