Lessons from a 1,000lb Pool Table
For the past four years, I've had a pool table in the basement of my New York City duplex apartment. The pool table was a bit of a calling card for me, evidence of a pre-covid rent-stabilized stroke of real estate fortune. But for everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven. This weekend, the time was upon us to repurpose the space.
The pool table was made from large slabs of slate, each weighing hundreds of pounds and collectively pushing a thousand pounds. Wooden beams and structure bolted together with large metal bolts. Given the complexity of the extraction, my wife specified in the ad that the buyer was responsible for bringing experienced movers to disassemble the item and movie it up the cramped stairway of our Brooklyn building.
In classic NYC fashion, the buyer showed up but the experienced movers did not. Instead, the pool table moving crew consisted of a small group of fly-by-day contractors who were surprised to learn they'd be moving a pool table. However, the truck was rented and parked outside. Standing in front of the 1,000lb+ behemoth, the crew had two options. Throw their hands up and go home, or tackle the job and figure it out.
The head of the crew sighed and shook his head. Then, slowly and methodically, they began to disassemble the table. The result was an arduous struggle. Hours upon hours later, as we sweated in the stairwell, hauling slate inch-by-inch to the truck, he apologized profusely to the crew, he had bitten off quite a bit for a Saturday.
TimeSentry Tackles Big Challenges
Building a startup is a lot like moving a pool table. If you tackle the problems one by one consistently, then eventually you start to see movement. What once seemed like a 1,000lb+ behemoth is now clearly 100 10lb+ behemoths.
And while Hofstadter's Law applies, the series thankfully, does converge.
In pool, it isn't a win unless you call the shot. I believe our company will continue to gain in momentum, push innovative features, win new customers, attract this country's finest engineering talent, and ultimately solve manual timekeeping for the 20M+ hourly billing professionals in this country.
8-Ball, Corner Pocket.
Our product is coming along exceedingly well. I am personally strengthening my relationships with our core customers, as is Taylor, and all of it is powered by the most advanced time tracking algorithm on the planet.
I look forward to making each and every one of you a champion of our product in the near future as we transform your work and 10x your day-to-day productivity through optimum time allocation strategies. If you don't know what that means, book a time with me through this booking link.
Asks:
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Be on the lookout for our time tracking survey in the next day or so! We'd love to understand what existing tools you are using to track your time and how you feel about those tools.
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Have an amazing Memorial Day weekend!
Until next time,
Joseph Frantz
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