RSSSeptember 9th, 2008
Follow-up: The Leap to New York City
In late June I moved to New York with my wife and two dogs for the summer. In a previous article I laid out reasons for taking this leap of faith, and what I was hoping to accomplish. Now that we are safely back in Nashville, I wanted to write a follow-up and talk about how the experience went.
Overall I could not have asked for a better experience. I learned a lot, met some really great people and found ways to continue building our small companies. After all, New York is full of people that are the best in the world at what they do, so it was incredible to be in the middle of it. The energy everywhere you look was enough to get me up and to the office right next to Wall Street each morning.
Here is how I stacked up on my 4 objectives:
1. Take Advantage of Proximity (B-)
Meeting new people and trying to earn new business cold turkey gets me out of my comfort zone very quickly. So I will admit, I did not make the most of potential work available in the city. However, I did make the most of existing relationships, and find ways to build our business as a result.
Along with getting a couple of new projects/clients we will be revealing in the near future, I got to start new projects with existing partners like Whiteboard Media in Philadelphia, Voxel Dot Net (our hosting partner), Merchant Plus (our merchant partner), Ubersmith and Twistage. These are all great companies that make sense for us to partner with. Just being there was enough to generate new and exciting projects for the next six months.
2. Enjoy the Commute (A)
It was a transition to travel to work every day, as opposed to working from home. Overall I REALLY enjoyed it, so much that I came back inspired to seek out an office space for our team. As long as you minimize distractions and find ways to get in a productive “zone” (I recommend headphones), being in an office with others is a huge plus. I got more done, and was able to relax much easier at home.
The problem in returning from the New York office commute is that the newly-acquired habits did not stick. I’m back to working more, working later and struggling to make the most of my time for an entire day. Once we find the right office space maybe I can look forward to enjoying the commute again.
3. Blog More (A+)
I am proud to say that I DID make blogging a higher priority while in New York, and I think it will continue that way. This is my 9th post since the initial article about this trip, which is a really great pace for me. At least one article every 10 days is my goal, and I love doing it.
The thing with blogging is MAKING time for it, because you will never HAVE time. I really love it, and come up with a new idea for a post it seems almost every day. This was a great goal that I am pleased to have accomplished.
4. Launch a new Application (A+)
This is a really funny goal to look back on. I actually moved to New York with plans that we would launch an application we have been using and working on slowly for about a year. However, that never happened. Over brunch a couple weeks after moving, a lightbulb went off and I pitched the guys on Feed My Inbox.
Less than a month and only about 3 days of development later we launched, and are now tracking over 3,000 feeds for people through email. The future is very bright as we continue working on new features for Feed My Inbox.
So YES, we launched a new application. It was just not the application I was talking about in the original article. It’s a good thing we don’t plan more than a week in advance for hardly anything, or else Feed My Inbox would not have happened.
In Closing
If you find yourself contemplating a LEAP of faith today, whether it be leaving the 9-5, taking your business in a new direction or simply moving somewhere to see what happens, ask yourself one question: “other than fear, what is keeping me from taking a leap today?” Chances are, the answer is nothing, and the rewards on the other end of a successful leap are great. Make it happen!
2 Comments
Jacob — September 10th, 2008
Hey Nick - we already miss you in this timezone!
From personal experience I totally agree with your comment about commuting and the toughness it takes to be productive in the home environment. Good luck on the new space.
Other than fear | Mementum — November 17th, 2008
[...] Other than fear If you find yourself contemplating a LEAP of faith today, whether it be leaving the 9-5, taking your business in a new direction or simply moving somewhere to see what happens, ask yourself one question: “other than fear, what is keeping me from taking a leap today?” Chances are, the answer is nothing, and the rewards on the other end of a successful leap are great. Make it happen! (Project83) [...]
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