Huddled up with my stuffed bear and a candle in the midst of an unusual tropical storm in San Diego, I dug deep into a Wikipedia wormhole on virtues. Why?
In a windy way, I’d been brought there by my friend Ariana’s recommendation of a numerology app called Teledipity. A side note – I find fields like astrology, numerology, personality questionnaires, myers-briggs etc wildly interesting – especially as prompts to question what I do and don’t resonate with. When I put in my birthdate in Teledipity, they gave me my life path number and a broad statement of my life’s main objective:
22, The Master Builder: A life building global-scale visions from initial hunch to full physical prominence.
Many parts of my reading after rang true. Technically, I’ve turned two of my career dreams into global-scale visions today.
- When I was 21, I had a dream about a farmer tending to larger and larger fields of seeds. A perfect metaphor for venture, a frustratingly opaque field. Seed to Harvest, my children’s book for adults on venture capital illustrated by my youngest brother Owen, has now sold 1600+ copies in 36 countries.
- When I was 20, I had a post-it note on my wall: “launch a venture firm.” Behind Genius Ventures has now invested in 38 early stage companies with founders located across the US and Canada from around the world, and a global investor network of 100+ limited partners.
And I’m just getting started. Over the next 20 years, my dream is to build a legacy venture firm, investing early in visionary builders with a modern process and timeless approach. To build community-oriented spaces and experiences for authentic connection. To educate the next generation of entrepreneurial investors through teaching, training, and content. To share my story and vision in hopes that it inspires people to pursue their wildest dreams despite the odds. And to carry out these dreams grounded in compassion, grace, and curiosity.
Much of my life has been defined by versatility, a capacity for change, and an ability to learn quickly. Because of my chameleon-like nature, I struggled to find an interest that captured my attention through school. My dad encouraged me to try everything, because it was important to know what I didn’t want to do. “You’re an inch deep and a mile wide,” one of my college mentors used to say – shaking his head watching me trying my hand at anything that piqued my interest – throwing events, interviewing musicians, flipping sneakers, working music festivals, engineering internships.
Watching Silicon Valley, a switch went off inside me. At last, my calling. I had no connections in the industry, had never taken a finance class, but I knew I wanted to be a venture capitalist after watching that show. Guided by the candlelight of clarity, I traveled a windy journey full of rejection and almosts to find my place in the venture ecosystem. When I got to own my investing practice at Behind Genius Ventures, my relief heightened.
I must learn about things I am deeply interested in, develop strong beliefs, meet new and interesting founders, share my story, and share their stories. On any given day, my conversations can be as granular as evaluating cold outreach messaging for a portfolio company to best practices in 20 year planning for generational firm handoffs. I am constantly running into roadblocks that require thoughtful consideration and creative solutions – and I feel lucky to have a strong support network of family, friends, mentors to approach these challenges with.
Back to the 22 Life path – Teledipidty’s reading said my main reward in life is freedom of resources, thought, and emotion as a way of advancing the development of my chosen field one day. In reflecting on this reward, one of the most important skills I believe I can develop now is patience. Already, I have been leveraging patience to turn down opportunities (that I would have leapt at in years past) to keep my relentless focus on developing a timeless investment approach.
On my wikipedia deep dive, I learned patience is defined as the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset. In a complex field navigating uncertain macroeconomic conditions, new challenges can arise at any moment. In leading large groups, interpersonal intricacies demand patience and an understanding of cooperation. In addition, patience is scientifically proven to improve both life well-being and happiness, so this feels like a worthwhile pursuit.
Patience was listed as one of the most common virtues. In the startup world, I’ve heard a lot of talk about values, but not many people talk about virtues.
So what is the difference between virtues and values? According to a quick google search, the majority of sources seem to point to a key difference – virtues are values in action.
In a 2018 Medium article Relationship Between Virtues and Values, the writer Jack Krupansky presents an argument that “Value and virtue both refer to the same thing — beliefs, principles, ideals, qualities, traits, properties, attributes, expectations, or characteristics of individuals or groups that are highly-valued, desired, admired, and prized in society, but the key distinction is that values are aspirational expectations, ideals or goals that are not always achieved, while virtues are those principles or qualities that have actually been achieved and can be directly observed and experienced in the here and now.”
Currently, my investing patience runs deep. In applying long term thinking, I have found a slice of peace – 7-10+ year timelines, my trust given to the founder after an investment. I actively prioritize patience in practice because I find it most essential to making informed decisions. Real life? Very much in progress 🙂
Ideally, patience will cover my experience like a thick handspun winter blanket – comfort in every stitch, through every dark night of the soul. In my next “semester” of life (till December), I’ll be focusing on actively and holistically cultivating the virtue of patience, and exploring what virtues may constitute my cardinal directions.
My self-directed study will begin with an exploration of books and research papers on character, virtues, activities to help me practice patience, and positive psychology. I am excited to learn more about this field, and see how it helps support me in bringing my visions to life.
Anyways, curious to hear in your replies / comments if you’re thinking through specific self development goals or if this one resonated with you. Additionally, if you have books or resources related to this subject, I’d love to read them. I don’t know that I’ve really dug deep on a subject like this before, but a freak tropical storm and hours inside were very motivating 🙂