Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. No gifts, no decorations, no consumer hype. Only friends, family, good food, great conversation, spending time together, and a real reminder about how lucky we are.
That being said, I’d like a moment to publicly share all that I’m thankful:
My husband, my soulmate.
The most amazing family a girl could ever ask for. Sister, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandma, the whole lot of ’em.
The love in my life. I’m surrounded by it from all directions.
The peace in our country. Being able to sleep at night and not fear for my life is a true blessing.
The food on my table, the roof over my head, the clothes on my back.
My education. I owe this to my parents.
My brain. It’s the most powerful tool I have.
My health. I hope I never take it for granted.
My friends – now spread all over the country. Most are like family to me.
The community in which I work and play in Boulder. I’ve been given some great opportunities and have been embraced by the entrepreneurial community – I hope I can make the most of those opportunities.
I’ve seen this theme come up recently a lot in talks with entrepreneurs trying to raise money, or trying to sell their product. A ton of time is spent working with the investor or possible client, and the discussion ends up going nowhere. Cycles are lost, people are rejected without knowing why, and everyone gets frustrated.
I’m a big believer in honesty about what I’m thinking and feeling, and that includes saying no. In any discussion, the second best answer to yes is NO. Silence is the worst thing you could ever do to someone. I’m not sure why people feel the need to go silent when they really want to say no. Is it that we as a culture like to avoid conflict? We don’t like to let people down or disappoint? What is it about that two letter word that is so scary?
I say that as investors, parents, friends, colleagues, bosses, whatever your role, we all practice saying no – but give reasons why. It’s no fun to be rejected, but at least when armed with the reasons why, we can improve our pitch, product, stance, opinion, whatever the question. In this scenario we all win. The askee isn’t continually bugged with a proposition, the asker can improve the ask and simultaneously move on quickly to other prospects. It saves time, frustration, and feelings.
Don’t be afraid of saying no. But do so with support and information, and we all win.
Anyone that knows me, knows that I have wanderlust. I think the longest I’ve ever stayed in the country without some serious walkabout is 3 years, and that was nearly devastating.
My friends at Everlater, Nate Abbott & Natty Zola just tweeted out about a guy that walked through China for a year. Here’s a video on it. Absolutely inspiring. I’m wondering – think this is possible with an infant?
I can tell you that since I keep myself in pretty good shape, I thought I’d be one of those cute pregnant girls who’s only point of expansion was her belly. HA! What a crock that is! The bad news is that your ass grows in proportion to your belly, to keep you balanced I guess. The good news is I have a set of BOOBS to go along with this little phenomenon.
Mark and I have just returned from a much needed month in Greece. People keep asking me what we did while there. Well, other than seeing a couple of ruins, we did little other than eat, sleep, drink, and see family. I really wish I could give a more exciting synopsis, but that is truly all there was.
We spent a few hot and polluted days in Athens, checking out the Acropolis and taking care of some paperwork (I’m working on getting my Greek citizenship – EU Passport BABY! – and as a digression, Mark won’t be getting his citizenship anytime soon since all men under the age of 45 must serve military duty). Then a couple of relaxing days on the island of Samos, just off the coast of Turkey. Our final resting spot was Ikaria, the mothership, the place where my entire lineage on both sides of my family are from. Hey, it’s not incest. It’s pedigree. There are about maybe 2000 people on the island year round, and that number swells to about 10K or 15K in the summer.
Ikaria island has been the subject of CNN’s recent series on Blue Zones – places in the world where people consistently live to over 100 years old. For Americans, this is a fascinating topic, one wrought with mystique and envy. Here, I can sum it up pretty quickly why they live so long and are so youthful into such late years.
They eat what they grow. Nothing in packages, boxes, or cans. And they don’t use fertilizers other than goat shit and food scraps, and no pesticides.
They walk EVERYWHERE. Seriously. You try hiking an hour down a mountain then 2 hours back up it twice a day for your whole entire life and see what kind of shape you’re in when you’re 95.
They work to live. They’re all farmers, so the work they do supports their life. But they aren’t working 18 hour days and come home to lists of crap to do. They have less stress in their lives.
The elders have purpose. They don’t sit in their house and watch TV while their brains rot. They have to feed the goats, harvest the crops, water the fields. If you show me an 100 year old in the US that still has a job, I’ll show you someone that’s still happy.
One notable thing we did while there was go to a Panayiti – this is a village’s annual celebration. It’s a little fundraiser for the village, but it involves food and wine and as much dancing as your legs can take. They usually start around 10pm, and this particular one didn’t wind down until about 9AM the following morning. The band played continuously that whole time – fantastic. The dance of choice in Ikaria is called the Ikariotiko, which is basically the island’s dance. Each island has it’s own dance. This dance can last 20 MINUTES if the band is feeling tortuous, and you’ve never been so tired and sweaty after a dance. For Ikarians, the Ikariotiko isn’t a dance, it’s a calling.
We left at about 5:30 in the morning, which is really when the party got started. It was a mercy escape really, as I was sleeping in the back of the car by this point (pregnancy will do that to you), my dad and husband were drunk beyond comprehension, and my poor mom was sick of babysitting the two of them. They came back RAGING, and I spent the next 10 minutes laughing so hard because my dad could hardly stand and my husband was singing the Ikariotiko out the window. At some point I had the werewithall to record his rantings… shared for your listening pleasure here. We’re driving down a very dark and winding road at 6am at this point, so the screen is dark except the occasional view of the road. Mark, when drunk, gets very philosophical, as you’ll see. You can imagine the Greeks LOVED that about him.
Anyway, we’re finally back and settling into life in these United States. We’re missing our naps at 3pm every afternoon, missing the fresh produce daily, and the nightly sunsets on the balcony with fresh grapes, wine, my Aunt Nota’s goat cheese, and some olives. It’s life back to lists and to dos. But my head no longer hurts from trying to speak Greek, my back no longer hurts from sleeping on a psuedo mattress, and I don’t have to wash dishes outside in a bucket anymore. Coming home is such sweet sorrow.
A huge thank you goes out to my Mom and Dad for spending the month with us.
These come out weekly, but I’m a little slow to post them. Enjoy! As always, head to TechStars.TV to see all the other fun things going on in our office.
TechStars has launched a new video series to highlight a couple of the companies going through our program. I even have a cameo or 2 in it! Check it out!
Nearly Nicole 