You Have No Idea.

“I will prove you wrong

If you think I’m all talk, you’re in for a shock

Cause this dream’s too strong”

There are some days…

There are some days that you will remember forever – perhaps your wedding day, or the birth of your children, and probably the death of loved ones.  But, within those monumental “life” moments, there are a handful of days that make a permanent impression and give you a sense of feeling bigger than life.  This past Saturday at our national Philanthro retreat in Vegas was one of those days for me.  Truth be told, I was exhausted.  It my first week back at Deloitte after my sabbatical; I had spent hours after work trying to refine the key presentation points that I would be delivering; and overall, there was a lot of ‘uneasiness’ and ‘anxiety’ leading up to the retreat.  It’s the type of event where you have all of your cities together and you want to create something ‘special’ that has everyone leaving with renewed energy, direction, and confidence in the organization.  This very memorable day had absolutely nothing to do with me, and everything to do with everybody else.  There was a sense of energy and pride about being part of Philanthro.  It was something that could be felt throughout the whole room and its presence remained throughout the whole weekend.  In Vegas, it’s very easy to lose sight of all things productive, but our teams continued to talk about ideas and how to bring them to reality.

Our company started so simply – just a small group of people hanging out and tossing around ideas.  But, the start is a ‘lifetime’ ago.  It has developed into a national corporation with hundreds of smart, talented people who have committed their free time, skills, and passions to create something that is far-reaching.  We have lost many people along the way.  People who have moved on to new opportunities and others who gave up on what we were trying to do.  But, we have endured and risen above many barriers that others would have succumbed to.  The organization used to be reliant on a few key people, but it has developed into a self-sustaining company that utilizes many different people who create and implement the strategies necessary to continue growing into the ‘household brand’ that we all desperately desire.  The power of seeing 50 or so people who believe in this organization as much as I do and who have similar dreams that I have is what made Saturday “one of those days.”  

When we all started Philanthro, there was actually a lot of pessimism about the idea and whether it was sustainable and true “value-add”.  Perhaps more striking was the amount of negativity about the motivations for doing this.  It was extremely disappointing that so many people that we hoped to get involved never even tried.  It was seen as some selfish ploy to get a few people into business school and then would drift off into non-existence shortly thereafter.  Over the past four years, I’ve gotten so many questions and inferences basically asking: “why are you still doing this?”; “don’t you think you’ve done enough”; “you don’t need Philanthro anymore”, “hasn’t Philanthro maxed out?”, etc. etc.  I get those questions to this day and the only thing that is clear is that those people don’t get it.  They don’t get the fact that achieving big vision requires a very long period of sustained involvement.  It requires an obsession that can, at times, be completely consuming.  I desperately wish that feeling of being completely consumed with a vision on everybody – only then will you realize the ability and capacity to achieve.

I don’t think people on the outside looking in truly understand how big Philanthro is now.  They still see it as some little side project that pops up every few months with a new event.  If these people ever saw how much this company does, how many lives it touches, and how much impact it makes – they would be absolutely astounded.  People who do know how big this company has become are shocked that all of this has been done with no full-time employees.  It has been nearly four years and I haven’t gone to business school, and probably never will.  I would be lying if I didn’t say that there’s still some motivation to prove the doubters, cynics, and critics wrong.  But, in some sense, I am passed that point now.  Our company speaks for itself.  There is no longer a need to stand alone and prove to anybody how big Philanthro has become.  The evidence is there and it is indisputable.  So for all of you that still have questions, I stand with the nearly 100 other people that share ownership of this company and simply say, “You have no idea.”