I’ve been wanting to restart my Substack for months.And every single time I sat down to write, something always interrupted the momentum. A deadline. A meeting. More meetings. Another responsibility. A project. Another founder call. My train of thought paused and then fizzled away. Then another “important thing” that felt more urgent than sitting down and writing something from my heart and brings me so much joy. Flourish is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.You know the feeling.It’s 8 PM.You’re shutting down your computer. FINALLY.Your brain is exhausted.And the thing you wanted to create for yourself gets pushed to tomorrow … again.Life gets in the way.Deadlines become the priority.And your to-do list slowly starts having a stronger hold on your dreams than your joy does.So today I decided not to overthink it.Not to make it perfectly strategic or overly technical or complicated.Not to make it perfectly polished within an inch of its life. Not to sit here trying to optimize every sentence.I just wanted to write again.Because there is joy in creating.There is exponential joy in sharing value.There is joy in bringing people together around ideas, purpose, innovation, leadership, faith, and hope and helping people think differently, feel encouraged, feel seen, feel equipped.And honestly, Substack feels like the perfect place for me to merge all the different parts of who I am:* professor,* investor,* ecosystem builder,* entrepreneur,* prayer warrior,* strategist,* futurist,* mentor,* servant leader,* community builder,* and somebody who genuinely believes goodness still matters in business.So here I am. Trying again.And maybe that’s the point.CallingCalling is a word that sounds really simple when somebody else says it and it feels very natural for some people.For me, it is deeply spiritual.I am humbly at the feet of my Lord and Savior trying to do His work in whatever spaces He places me in. I pray continuously. I ask for discernment constantly. My calling is ultimately His plan for my life, not mine. It’s simple. I like it that way because I have days that are filled with multiple meetings, long list of to-do’s, many are minute details and some pieces of long projects. I ask for discernment from the Lord constantly. My calling is not something I manufactured, it is something I steward. But understanding that calling clearly?That has taken me years.Because to understand your calling, you have to get very honest with yourself.You have to ask:What actually makes me come alive?What makes me joyful, not just temporarily happy?What keeps me going through difficult seasons?What comes naturally to me that maybe I’ve minimized for years, so much to make ot insignificant?And for the last couple of months, honestly maybe the last year, I’ve been wrestling deeply with those questions.Because my career has felt layered.Like a giant lasagna of experiences layered on top of each other:* entrepreneurship,* venture capital,* angel investing,* academia,* nonprofit leadership,* accelerators,* ecosystem building,* startup advising,* conferences, * innovation programs,* writing,* speaking, TEDx talks, keynotes, panels* mentoring, advising, coaching* serving.Some days it feels beautifully cohesive and interconnected.Other days it feels completely all over the place.I’ve been told I’m “too multi-lane.”That I am too relational.Too visionary.Too “nice”.Too broad.Too optimistic.Too encouraging.Too emotionally invested in people.And if you hear those things long enough, imposter syndrome eventually becomes loud enough to drown out your calling, it gets blown out the front door because of the perceived insignificance of the very thing that brings you significance. But over the last year, I’ve realized something transformative:The very things I once thought were weaknesses are actually the clearest indicators of my calling.The Journey Was Never RandomWhen I look back at my life, I now see that nothing was random. God had a beautiful and honoring plan all along. I have been an entrepreneur who made money and lost money.I have launched products, services, packages and bundles.I have curated events, investor networks, sparked movements.I have launched 5 accelerators, nonprofit initiatives.I have produced educational programs, podcasts and innovative projects. I have engaged in multiple startup ecosystems.I’ve had moments standing on TEDx stages wondering how in the world I got there.And I’ve also had moments kneeling on the floor asking God why certain things were happening at all.I have watched portfolio companies fail.I have watched companies exit. Small and big exits alike.I have watched founders merge into larger organizations while terrified of losing themselves in the process.I have seen entrepreneurs soar.I have seen entrepreneurs break.And through all of it, one truth remained constant:I genuinely love ...
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May 27 202618 mins