Most recently, I was Founder & CEO of Impart. Working in high ambiguity, I found writing invaluable to thinking clearly and making sound decisions.

I like this piece on Why Everyone Should Write by Collaborative Fund.

Examples from Impart

• Vision
• Values
• Failure (a.k.a. Quitting)

Vision

When Impart was approaching its first cliff, I knew I had to cast a big vision and rally an amazing team. This would be the difference between falling or flying.

Fortunately I had just read VC Fred Wilson's post about Purpose, Mission, Strategy. He talks about the importance of all 3 and how to connect them in your company.

Even more relevant was Fred's post on being transparent about long-term strategy. In it, he cites great examples from Tesla and Coinbase Founders. Inspired by Elon Musk's "Secret" Master Plan for Tesla, I articulated my vision for Impart:

Values

Once I recruited a stellar team, I knew we could build the best Impart by leveraging each person's unique perspective. This meant trusting individuals and giving them as much autonomy as possible.

To ensure autonomy led individuals to the best decisions for the company, I emphasized Impart's vision (above) and values (below). Looking back, I believe values are more important to get right than vision. As a startup learns and grows, their vision will likely change (pivot!), while values will become more ingrained (founders inculcate others).

For best practices, I looked to Programming Your Culture from The Hard Thing about Hard Things by Ben Horowitz. He states company culture should:
- Distinguish you from competitors
- Ensure that critical operating values persist, such as delighting customers or making beautiful products
- Help you identify employees that fit with your mission

Inspired by the idea that knowing who you are is as important as knowing who you're not, I decided Impart would value:

• Humans over Technology
• Relationships over Transactions
• Mindfulness over Expedience
• Balance over Perfection

Failure (a.k.a. Quitting)

I believe failure is synonymous with quitting. When you fail, there's probably some torturous way you could have kept going. But you decide it's not worth it and quit. That's why it feels so bad - quitting is a choice.

Now that I've posited failure is quitting, it's also true - failure is success in the form of learning. Fortunately there's enough people posting successory quotes about failure that it's gained respect.

On the other hand, quitting often gets an overly bad rep. While a high amount of stick-with-it-ness is important, I believe everyone has their limits. If we think of quitting like failure - a form of learning - it becomes a more understandable choice. Are you optimally balancing growth, opportunity, risk, and opportunity costs? Hint: There's no right answer :)

First Round Capital shared this piece about The Magical Benefits of the 'Quitter's Mindset'.

Here's me when I quit Impart: