#13DaysOfReflection — Day 3

3. “AVOID HAVING YOUR EGO SO CLOSE TO YOUR POSITION THAT WHEN YOUR POSITION FALLS, YOUR EGO GOES WITH IT.”

We found so much insight and success on the campaign trail in my early 20’s that you couldn’t tell me a damn thing about New Media Marketing — I cracked the code. In reality, a bunch of us did. And because I was part of that equation, my ego took that moment and made the next all about ME. Ugh…what an asshole.

My first company was supposed to be this great marketing shop developing a cutting-edge app that would merge TheFacebook and Twitter worlds together with incredible insights. And we’d sell this to the biggest names and companies in the world. A CRM for the New Media, now Social Media, world. Sound familiar? Because there’s literally a gazillion of them now. And they are all far better and more efficient than anything I was building. The I, Me, My in this post is 100% intentional. I forget about the “Why” and the “We.” I find myself circling back to this moment often nowadays. I was focused on the wrong thing. I attached myself to the success — and made it all about ME ME ME! I should have focused on the people, who were likely horrified to witness my ego trip. I should have focused on building THEM up. Collaborating with them. Connecting…with them. But because it was ME instead of THEM, MY house of cards fell…HARD.

The people who sacrificed their time and energy suffered because of it — and that’s what makes me so disappointed nowadays. The product blew away like dust. And all that money was just gone…in an instant. Granted, this is an over-implication of what happened, but it happened. And I was out on the street. A grown man — sleeping on the same pullout couch w/ my little brother — maybe we can touch on more about that in another time — but back to focus…I failed the people who trusted me — wholeheartedly. For what? Smh. I’m sorry.

I’d go on to commit the rest of my life trying to fix this mistake…focusing on others. Focusing on lifting as I climbed. Focusing on building rather than pushing. Focused on leadership over dictating. Focused on WE over me.

Stupid ego…