For the seven years between leaving IGN and selling MyBlogLog, I lived with a voice that constantly told me I had lost my one chance to ever be successful.
I'm not saying I was full-on schizophrenic, but That. Voice. Was. Real.
Every single time I screwed up, the voice reminded me that I was a failure. Every single time I messed up as a manager, it told me this is why I didn't get an executive position when IGN spun out to go public. And even when I did something right, the voice would beat me down, telling me my small success proved absolutely nothing.
I spent my 30th birthday alone, wandering the streets of Northampton, MA in an existential funk, that fucking voice telling me over and over and over that I would never have another chance to build something that mattered.
Johann Hari said, "the opposite of addiction is connection.” It is when we feel isolated and alone that we make the worst choices, often with long-term consequences.
I don't know many groups more isolated and alone than startup CEOs. We start companies because we want to change the world, rarely aware of just how much work that entails, how much shit we have to trudge through, and just how few people understand what that experience is like.
This is why I started the Thunderview CEO Dinners last year. It's a community of startup CEOs where we share our successes and our stresses, help one another out and ultimately find a group of people walking the same rewarding yet challenging path.
The next Thunderview CEO Dinner is next Thursday, May 2nd, at 6p at the Mercury Cafe in Denver.
Please come.
David Mandell will be giving his famed "How to Be a Badass CEO" talk. You'll meet awesome people. You might even find your tribe.
More info: ThunderviewCEODinners.com
Sign up for a spot: https://thunderviewceodinners.com/apply
PS, when I sold my next startup to Yahoo!, that voice shut the hell up for good.