Treebird at six months: an only-slightly self-indulgent retrospective
No endeavor that is worthwhile is simple in prospect;
if it is right, it will be simple in retrospect.
--Edward Teller
A lot happens in six months. The Treebird adventure began on April 16, the day after the Boston bombings. As terrible a historical marker as that is, it’s a flashpoint moment that links our existence to a specific point in time. On a lighter note, we can also say, “When we launched Treebird, the government was still working.” Depending on how you define “working,” that is.
If these first six months have taught us anything, it’s that “work” as a start-up small business is inseparable from life as a start-up small business. Probably we anticipated this, but as Hume said, you don’t know it until you live it (okay, Hume didn’t really say it that way, but probably when he was groggy and talking to his dog he said it that way). Weekends disappear, six o’clock means very little whereas before it meant a great deal. Boundaries blur, and a ringing phone takes on a whole new meaning.
But we have to admit: We sort of love it.
I mean, how fortunate can you be to have the opportunity to take what you love, take what you’re good at and developed and honed over the years, and tell one small corner of the world, “Hey, we love this and we’re good at it and we’ve developed and honed our craft and philosophy over the years,” and have at least some very small portion of that one very small corner say back, “Hey, you’re right. We’re a little bit impressed by you. Let’s work together so that we too can become better and grow and sustain my business.”
That’s crazy! And wonderful. And humbling. Insanely confronting? Not so much. (go to 2:30). But we still love you, Toni Collette.
Anyway, we’re here, six months later, with (most of) our bills paid and (reasonably) good health and a (pretty) optimistic outlook because we work with some amazing, amazing clients. And yes, it’s easy to just say that, but this is our blog and we could literally say any number of a million other things, as you can see we’re given to do, but our clients are what keep us going. Go take a look at our work page to see some of what we’ve been up since April.
Thinking about why it’s been working so far, we’ve come to a realization: We’re working with a lot of creative, passionate entrepreneurs like ourselves. We love working with ourselves!
But seriously, some are so well-established that their names are known nationally. Others are freshly minted business owners who have a vision and a work ethic and value collaboration. What we share is the desire to work closely together, to talk big picture and trust each other—each in our own realm of expertise—to take care of the execution and the details, and to deliver on what we promised.
It’s that simple and, some would say, that complicated, but mostly it’s that simple, because we get to work incredibly closely with our clients without any middle men or corporate mumbo jumbo or cantankerous ankle biters impeding real breakthroughs. With a dynamic of mutual trust and mutual respect and mutual brainpower, you can accomplish amazing things in a short amount of time. We’ve seen that in our first six months. And that, along with our mortgage, is what keeps us going.
Many thanks to our families and our friends and our associates and especially our clients who have extended incredible support and goodwill and energy and faith that have sustained us these first six months. Here’s to many more.
With gratitude,
The Treebird team