Unfinished Kris

I learned pretty young where babies come from, but it wasn’t until my late 40s that I learned where grown ups come from.

For just shy of 15 years, I happily hustled to help build an amazing little startup. The founder of the start up worked to cultivate a non-corporate culture. For many great years my co-workers and I enjoyed developing what we loved without a whole lot of restriction. We laughed while we busted our butts, and we got to see our impact directly. It was an amazing time.

At some point, the founder started talking about needing to hire some “grown ups”. I was slightly offended, but I also knew what he meant. He meant people who looked and sounded slick to other corporate-types. I was certainly not that – never have been – and if I haven’t grown up by now, I am sure I never will.

These grown ups seemed to be largely useless, but they sure did present well. Luckily, the goofballs still out-weighed the grown ups, and the grown ups were nice enough people, so our culture didn’t suffer.

Eventually, the start up sold and was merged into a larger entity. This larger entity was FULL of grown ups, and the useless nature of all of the grown ups I had worked with previously began to make a lot more sense.

In a start up, there is often more work than there are people and more roles than bodies. Many hats are worn by each individual, and agile generalists are created.

In a corporate environment, there are often more people than there is work. Multiple people share one hat, and they stay in their lanes/silos, and slick grown ups emerge.

It only makes sense. If you’re sharing a hat with 5 other people, you had better be the slickest of them, say the buzzwords with the most confidence, and be the best at baffling with bullshit, because eventually someone will notice that only one person is really needed for that one hat.

And that’s where grown ups come from.