The Reboot podcast showcases the heart and soul, the wins and losses, the ups and downs of startup leadership. On the show, Entrepreneurs, CEO’s, and Startup Leaders discuss with Jerry Colonna the emotional and psychological challenges they face daily as leaders.
Episode 60 // May 4, 2017
Khe Hy spent 14 years in Financial Services and was successful by all signs, but his work and life felt ‘meh.’ Something felt disconnected from him as he suited up in the morning and turned off the finance switch in the evening. He opted for a life of more meaning and started RadReads, a passion project now grown into a community of sorts. But something still didn’t feel right for Khe. Even though he preached a lot about what’s important, he found that a hard talk to walk and instead found himself putting the most important things in his life – his wife and daughter – last on his list of priorities. Despite all of Khe’s efforts in meditation, mindfulness, and reflection, he struggled to figure out how to be present for his life. Instead, he found himself thinking about ideas, people in his network, and ways to improve. As a self-proclaimed life-hacker, he struggled to find the metrics and hacks to be present.
As Khe and Jerry discuss, perhaps the answer to being present is deeper than hacks and metrics. Perhaps the clue lies in what he’s so afraid of.
Memorable Quotes
“I was comfortably numb. I wasn’t unhappy but I wasn’t happy. I was just “meh.”” – Khe Hy
“It’s so warm and cozy to be in a cocoon until we die because if we don’t break out of it, we start to die.” – Jerry Colonna
“People who like the knowable universe: “If I can right the right code and build the right spreadsheet, then the world is in my grasp.”” – Jerry Colonna
“There’s this quote by Dan Harris and he said, “With one foot in the future and one foot in the past, you’re pissing on the present.”” – Khe Hy
“I was pissing on the long portion of my adulthood, searching for that next thing on, and on, and on.” – Khe Hy
“…this fear of our own death makes us want to live a heroic life.” – Khe Hy
“What was the problem? You had a great LinkedIn profile. Everything was good, right?” – Jerry Colonna
“… the inside of you wasn’t matching the outside of you.” – Jerry Colonna
“As a sole entrepreneur especially without a clearly defined product or business that’s figuring it out as I go along. The metrics, I don’t even know what they are.” – Khe Hy
“There are no metrics. That’s the trick. That’s the falsity. You don’t measure your life’s passage in metrics.” – Jerry Colonna
“The clue is to understand what it is that you’re so damn afraid of.” – Jerry Colonna
“I’m afraid of not having done something that mattered.” – Khe Hy
“There is no past. There is no future, there is only the present.” – Jerry Colonna
“In the pursuit of the metrics, you’ll have missed the happiness that the metrics have designed to deliver.” – Jerry Colonna
“There is no perfect place out there to get to. There is only here.” – Jerry Colonna
“Maybe the wrong construct is that there is something you should be doing.” – Khe Hy
“The answer to being present is to stand still. Listen and Breathe.” – Jerry Colonna
“…rather than face the fear of actually being present to your life, you construct materialistic means to be present to your life.” – Jerry Colonna
“…breaking through cocoon life is really hard and our impulse is to always go in the cocoon.” – Jerry Colonna
“Life is chop wood carry water. There is no hacking our way from chopping wood and carrying water. There is only the present.” – Jerry Colonna
“It’s the work with a capital W. It’s the work of our lives.” – Jerry Colonna
