Three Things I Learned In SaaS, Sports, Tech & Live Events 9.22.23
Food Pantries are struggling, Pablo Escobar's prison and our careers, and Fear of God
There's no food at the food pantry.
We volunteer at the local food pantry in the valley every two weeks and have since late 2018. I've never seen less food than there is there right now. Donations are way down from historical levels. It's a national problem with some press blaming inflation.
It's budget season for corporations. They're cutting costs like I haven't seen since 2010 and looking for ways to make money (for us, that's re-sale). The amount of tickets they're dropping is already hard on teams and getting worse. Feels different. Like we're in the middle of a cycle, not near the end.There's always a "canary in the coal mine" moment. Maybe the food pantry today is mine.
Our career and La Catedral
Pablo Escobar built his own prison, a five-star resort he named "La Catedral" in a shrewd settlement with the Colombian government. Not much of a punishment for a man who bombed the Colombian Senate.
For most of us, our career is where we're going to spend most of our waking hours. Yet when we interview people, the vast majority have put almost no thought into what they want to spend their lives doing and will settle for what looks great in the moment.
I'm 25 years in. Take it from me - best to build something you like. The stakes go way up as time passes.
BTW - Escobar "escaped" from his own prison only 13 months into his 5 year sentence. History is as entertaining as anything.
I aim to have a healthy enough fear of GOD that there isn't room for any other fears.
A throw-away line used in a different context in SG Gwynne's "Empire of the Summer Moon" stopped me in my tracks on Monday.
The more I think about it, the more profound it is.