Change Is Scary

The Daily Haiku for March 6. Change Is Scary.

Change is scary but,
everything that stales dies,
change is essential.

My CFO resigned last week. It was Monday, and I was quite stressed. I was about to leave to take a flight to the MWC in Barcelona, We were speaking at two panels and participating in several side events to talk about Companio, borderless business, the future of work, and the e-Residency Program of Estonia.

When I was about to order a taxi, she asked me if we could talk. Something in her message told me it was not going to be good news.

I can't say it was something that caught me by surprise. This person started to work with us a couple of years ago, when the company was smaller. She was a junior accountant back then, and then our CFO resigned. That was a very complicated moment, right after the pandemic. At that very moment, we didn't have many options, and we needed to find a replacement fast. Our previous CFO suggested us to promote this person for the position, and we accepted without thinking a lot about it.

Looking back, I think that was not the wisest decision. Not because there was something wrong with this person, but because she didn't really feel passionate about what we want to do. Hard as it sounds, I think this is going to be a positive change. And don't get me wrong. This person is a highly qualified professional, a very serious and reliable person. I know she is going to have a very successful career, and rightly so.

However, Companio is evolving, and quite fast. We are not the same company we were two years ago. We never tried to play the startup game, and that brought us some good things (like, starting a bootstrapped business from scratch with zero bullshit and no investment), but also some bad things too. Namely, especially at the beginning, we didn't care much to develop a proper startup culture. We just wanted people who could do work and help us scale to the next level. Culture was not a priority back then. That was a fundamental mistake.

Fortunately, during the last two years, we have worked hard to fix that mistake. We have now a strong startup culture in place and a sense of direction. Everybody in the team knows what are our strategic goals, our values, and our culture. And that shows on the new members of our little big family. These people are not just "employees" looking for the highest salary. They are brave souls full of new ideas, passionate and creative folks.

And there is a huge difference between someone who just wants to work to pay the bills and someone who believes in what you are doing, who truly enjoys making a difference and positively affecting the lives of hundreds of people. We are on a mission to empower every entrepreneur and freelancer out there to live the life they love, wherever they want to live it, however they want to live it. We truly believe in that.

So change is scary, it is frightening, yes. But experience has shown Miguel and I that it is usually for the best and, many times, needed. I am so happy to have had the privilege of working with this person during this time. She really made a great job and I am indebted to her for helping us take Companio to where it is now. But I can't wait to meet the person who will help us jump to the next level.

Don't be afraid of change. Embrace it. Use it to your advantage. Reset. Do things differently. Evolve.

Change is essential.