As a person who’s been in the technology field for more years than anyone should be, I’ve seen my fair share of dark places. These forlorn, apocalyptic and forgotten corners of buildings aren’t shooting locations of the next horror movie but where those of our ilk work day in an day out. Often these spaces will be small, will contain nothing even resembling creature comforts like tables and chairs, and will feature the incessant humming of today’s computerization. You office workers have it so easy with you Steelcase chairs and cubicle walls. Despite the pains of this work (I know there are far worse places to work), I have come to wonder about the food we eat.
If I hadn’t gotten into this more deeply, I wouldn’t have even pondered it at all. I’d have continued to build the business I still run now, 20 years later. Yes, I know something about starting a business, and I know this from a time before it was as cool and sexy as it is today. Then, I was just like many of the eager young people I see in Gary’s videos – looking for something – an answer, an idea, a vision, some direction that makes this stuff make sense. I was that 20-something year old too. Listless and and looking for anything that takes me to the next level. Hell, if there was a Gary Vaynerchuk back then, I’d have probably watch all of his videos like my niece watches “Graveyard Girl” videos on Youtube.
Recently I saw a movie that inspired much of this post. That movie is merely titled ↬Happy. In this documentary, the director takes us on a path of discovery looking for what makes people happy. I was pleasantly pleased at how this movie went all over the world looking for answers to that simple idea – but it even highlighted something I had thought about in the past too. There is this thing that I think is a secret to being successful and creating longevity for us and what we do – and finally the movie Happy give it a name.