About 10 minutes ago, I filled out a survey sent to me by a friend for the Santa Clara Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship. The goal, as best as I understood it, was to look at personality traits of entrepreneurs. As I often do when asked personality questions, I struggled between providing my default tendencies or my consciously developed patterns.
The survey questions freeze my personality at a specific instance in time. Had they asked these questions while I was in college, during my first company or perhaps when my second company was failing they would have found a very different set of responses. I found myself choosing a number of answers while thinking, “but that is because I chose to change that and now am comfortable with ….”.
I used to be shy. My hand shook visibly for the first 3.5 years while making cold calls and I would feel physically ill. I believed that I could tackle anything when I was in college. I had a hard time in a room of strangers in my early 20s. I woke up every morning depressed at some stages in my life but not in others. The concern I have is that whatever picture I have offered them today is a moving target as I am constantly molding myself to achieve the goals I want in life.
If I had to pick one characteristic consistent to every successful business owner and entrepreneur I have ever known, it is a willingness to change. That willingness and the change that comes from it makes me feel weird when answering these questions. Telling them in multiple choice that it is easy for me to generate comfortable conversation among a group of strangers is a 3/4 truth. I am comfortable, but I was not always. It was a hard earned comfort. If you are not willing to change in order to have the life you want, then your dream might not be big enough. Periodically take some time and appreciate how you have changed. You may be shocked.
This is a short post. Perhaps if I quit trying to write novels I will be able to post again. Nothing like 37 mostly written posts to make one feel silly. I want to thank you all for the wonderful emails I have received in the past year. A quick bit of news. My first daughter, Serenity Louise Pearlman, is a few weeks out from joining this world. We now have a gorgeous Vizsla puppy names Venture. He surfs with me and fills our life with mischief. Business continues to grow and we keep learning how to run a company every day. We barely missed our 2008 1M which pretty much blew my mind. Peter is making a new album and organizing an art show in Germany in 2010 of his mothers paintings to honor her life. I am organizing Freelance Camp Santa Cruz (august 15, 2009), which is starting to come together nicely. All in all, life is full, I am happy, and I miss writing.
Peace & Grattitude