SDH115: Overcoming Growing Pains with Claire Lew

You are the type of person who never wanted to just say "work is fine." You wanted to be passionate about your work and solve problems that interest you. When someone asks you how work is you want to say "AMAZING" and go off on a tangent about your latest project or entrepreneurial feat. You aren't a typical 9-5 corporate culprit. You are a boss entrepreneur who overcomes a lot of different pains but doubles that pain with growth. Todays guest, Claire Lew, is the CEO of Know Your Company. She has overcome her own growing pains as an entrepreneur and helped create the tools for companies to overcome their unique pains as well. In this episode you will... Know how a bootstrap company works & its benefits Hear how Claire's dad's work influenced her Value why you can't let your "inspiration expire" Strengthen your ability to trust yourself Uncover how Claire has grown as a leader & CEO Learn about Claire's relationship with Basecamp RESOURCES: She Did It Her Way Podcast She Did It Her Way Twitter She Did It Her Way Facebook Claire's Twitter Know Your Company Twitter Claire's Website Know Your Company Website Claire's Instagram "What Should I Do with My Life" by Po Bronson "Rework" by Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson Starter League Software The Lively Show Podcast Ben Horowitz article Basecamp 1 Password Draft INSIGHT: “Being a bootstrap company, the fact that you are deliberately choosing not to take on outside funding, what that means is that cash flow is everything.”- Claire Lew “I just don’t want to say that work is ‘fine’ because clearly it’s not when you’re saying something is fine.”- Claire Lew “We’ve grown up in a society that gives us a lot of signals,clues, paths, and symbols for what success is and it’s very easy to listen to those things.”-Claire Lew “The greatest source of motivation, the greatest source of you being able to accomplish what you want to do, has to come from within yourself."-Claire Lew “My greatest source of happiness comes from helping other people and I think the best way that I could possibly do that was to start a company.”-Claire Lew “How you feel about your work affects how well you actually do your work.”-Claire Lew “If there’s something that really pisses you off ride that momentum and just take advantage of that feeling in the moment and ride it out.”-Claire Lew “Well, this inspiration has an expiration date. It’s fleeting and if you don’t just kind of jump on it right then in the moment it will really pass.”-Claire Lew “In terms of thinking ‘how did I know that this was the right thing to do or go after’ or ‘how did I know this was the right problem to solve,’ I didn’t. I just decided and took advantage of the inspiration when I felt it.” -Claire Lew “I am my own worst critic and I know that I can be very hard on myself, so being able to brush things off, being able to tell myself that it’s ok and everything is not in my control because that is impossible, learning to be patient with myself, learning to take vacations, learning to take more reasonable hours, that is a learning process.”-Claire Lew