That’s MY Clique

If every nigga in your clique is rich, your clique is rugged
Nobody will fall cause everyone will be each others crutches

Yesterday, I shared the basics of Hux with a friend and developer. I was nervous, as I always am when I share the premise behind Hux. It’s my baby. I’m not too afraid of someone stealing it as much as I am about someone thinking it’s a lame idea. It’s a constant feeling among new entrepreneurs and some old. What’s lost when when you hide your idea is that you miss out on the chance to make your idea better. Every person you introduce your idea to is going to have a thought about it, and it’s best to get the feedback now versus when you have deadlines and expectations. It’s cheaper to pivot when you’re in the idea phase than it is when your release is hours away, or when you have millions of dollars from investors already spent. (Those helicopters won’t buy themselves…)

The second part is that by sharing your ideas with other people, especially other entrepreneurs, you help make the community stronger. That’s why most VCs want founders to have a team. It not only shows the ability to sell other people on your idea, it shows greater creative potential. When an idea only has to make it through YOUR checklist to be created there’s a ton of things that will be missed, versus the amount of things that’d be missed if you added just two more people before implementation. The start will be slow, this is normal. As the team filters out ideas they’ll become attuned to the frequency of the project and soon they’ll start humming along. The review process will pick up, but if they’re a good team they’ll keep each other honest. Honesty is a powerful thing for a startup. It’s best if it starts with the higher ups, with the core team, because when the customer is honest, they’re WAY louder. When the tech writers are honest, they’re (usually) not going to be giving you constructive criticism. That is why the core team HAS to be tight and honest.

The last part is that as a team when you’re knocking off competition it builds up the team. Harry, Hermione, and Ron weren’t friends until AFTER they knocked out a mountain troll together (I’m a nerd, sue me). It takes battles and fires to properly forge a sharp team. Once together it takes honesty to keep it together. As you and your team are taking on the world, which is what we’re all doing, you will each gain strengths. Share those strengths and insights with the team, the team then will gain some of those strengths, which will pass on to the project. So, all this to restate what Jay-Z said at the top. When your team is strong, it’s way better than just YOU being strong.

I hope you fools choose to listen…

Breathing different

After knocking out some laps I felt tired, but good. I also felt like I deserved some time in the hot tub. I got in and there were a good mix of people and I just got into my head thinking about posts and Hux. Then as if waiting for some signal everyone left and it was just me. That’s cool with me but I did sniff under my arms to see if I was the smelly kid. After a while an east African family came in. I stopped sniffing and relaxed. I instantly felt comfortable.  I felt at home. I had this feeling once before in Seattle when I went to a Senegal naming party. I just forgot about something and felt so relaxed so at home. I started to breathe different. It’s hard to describe,  but my whole demeanor just eased. That happened again today. I am generally comfortable in almost any group of people, but around my people I’m something more. It’s so hard to explain, but something just clicks and I’m a part of something that I wasn’t moments before. Something bigger. Without them saying anything I feel accepted and not judged. I feel like they too are breathing different. This is a different kind of post and a hard one to articulate,  but I wanted to share it.