The Little Wins.

People want to work. They want to work towards something.

My team has noticed that some founders are starting to hit a wall with the forced “Work from home.” A founders life is uncertain as it is, and then throw “First global pandemic experience” into their world and it expands your brain with a new type of fear and opportunity. It can cause you to be distracted from what is important.

We are more than 2 months into this now, and the rules are more unclear and more uncertain than ever, which is frustrating. Personally, most of my energy is derived from human beings around me and new experiences, and when I am unable to discover new human beings and forced to work in isolation… my mana depletes quickly. I also know that I’m not the only one feeling the compounding pressure of this change.

My co-founder, Brayton Williams, said something to me last week that struck a chord. After not seeing each other for 75 days, Brayton and I hung out. In the 9 years of working with Brayton, that is the longest stretch of time we have ever not seen each other in person… which is crazy. What he said was:

“Right now, it’s about celebrating little wins. And staying focused on one thing.”

When operating in isolation, some of the natural “Energy” or “Mana” is lost. Founders need to FEEL the progress right now in order to keep from burning out. Holding the entire team to one metric will simplify what “progress” is and give everyone little wins every week. It’s more important than ever to clarify what “success” is to your team and deliver on that promise.

If you or someone else succeeds, celebrate it big time! Hit a gong, watch frozen 2, email a video of yourself fist pumping to your whole team! Cook some sourdough bread.

Little wins add up to something big. You have to keep the teams energy and focus at an all time high, even while you are working in a distributed way.

Where were your little wins last week? Where were your teams little wins? Did you have any win with your family?