One of the more beautiful sunsets in our neighborhood this year, which seems fitting, as the sun now sets on another year. Farewell 2023.
Well, it’s about that time. We are careening to the end of another year, and in addition to the natural impulse to reflect whilst relaxing during the quietest time of the work year, everyone is also publishing their “year in review” blog posts. With how much I enjoy reading these posts from people that are, to be quite honest, perfect strangers - I figure I should contribute, do the same, and give folks a peek into what 2023 looked like for me.
Health
I started the year with no resolutions. No concrete goals. The best I could (would?) do was commit to doing the most, and the best, that I could to keep me and my family healthy. In March, on my birthday, I saw my primary physician for the first time since before the pandemic. From that visit came: full blood work, scheduling the colonoscopy (I am of that age), several visits with a psychiatrist, some therapy (which everyone, I posit, could use more of). Additionally, in March I kicked off working with Form Health as a patient/customer.
The good:
After 20+ years of neglecting a previous diagnosis of attention deficit disorder (no “hyperactive”) I got back on proper medication and was able to operate as – what I imagine to be – a normal human being. Something about writing code for most of my career worked with and through my “quirks”, but the switch to management, all of its meetings, and high-interrupt requirements, did not pair well with the parts of my brain that are off. The lesson here: do the research, recognize the patterns, and don’t make the mistake of considering proper medication a moral failure.
Last winter saw my activity take a dip, and some weight I’d previously lost, was found! The decision to double down on weight-lifting and engaging with Form Health righted the ship. I’m down my lowest number since the turn of the decade, which I’m pleased with. On a similar note to the one above, proper medication contributed to my being able to live a more “normal” human life. I will write more about this in the future as it deserves its own post.
This will be the first (and probably last) time I will ever put a selfie of myself out there, flexing. So, enjoy.
The bad:
For most of the year we battled through a cancer scare in our family. (I won’t get into specifics as some things deserve the privacy 🙂.) I won’t bury the lede, but everyone is ok and we are on the other side of the worst of it. Several procedures and many trips to the doctor have put us in a place where the risk is approaching zero. We’re not there yet, but almost. Needless to say the ordeal was … a lot. As a result I ended up taking some time away from work when everything just got to be too much. I am grateful to work somewhere that views their employees as people with lives both rich and complicated and sometimes rocky, bumpy, overwhelming.
(Of course) our dogs are a large part of our family. In the spring we lost Pearl. She was 12 and had lived a long and wonderful life. To this day we miss her terribly.
This past month my last 2 wisdom teeth were finally pulled. Folks. Do it all when you’re a young’n. Get them ALL pulled. Don’t weight until you’re in your 40’s. Trust me when I say it’s a bad bad bad bad idea to wait.
On the Shubox front, I made the pivot from “bring your own bucket” to “buy a bucket w/Shubox” and finally turned the feature flag to 100%. I continue to work on it, but admit that, with some hindsight, I would have done some things very differently when I first started out. This coming year will be my put-up-or-shut-up year. Who knows how things will look in December of 2024.
Made it to Terrificon and met some childhood heroes. Will absolutely do it again in ‘24. (Jim Lee?!? OKAY!)
Took G to several Boston Celtics games. Some W’s. Most L’s. But that’s okay because each experience was a blast.
Watched G perform in a breakdance recital, and his first after-school play. He’s a born showman, this kid.
Set up my home office, permanently, as a combo standing and treadmill desk. My 13 year old Herman Miller Aeron chair now belongs to a new home, thanks to CraigsList.
Welcomed a new family member, our 4th English Bulldog - Ruth, or Ruthie, or “Rudabega”, or “Luda-Bega”, or “Ru-Ru Cakes”. There is still an abundance of puppy energy but she’s as sweet as she is crazy.
Met friends at as many Treehouse brewery locations as possible. I miss my friends. I talk to many of them every day, but I miss them.
It wasn’t the greatest year. It was also not the worst. As with many things, the key to sanity is not allowing yourself to get too high, or too low. I look back on the last 365 with many things I can smile at, and as a result I consider myself extremely fortunate, privileged, and grateful. Let’s hope that 2024 brings us more adventures, more laughs, and more triumphs.
Generated image via ChatGPT/Dall-E illustrating the phrase "one man's trash is another man's treasure"
T’is the season and all that. The most wonderful time of the year where we feed
capitalism until it’s forced to loosen 2 notches on its belt. Your national and
local news are just now sending their reporters out to local malls for “person
on the street” interviews about people and their spending habits this year.
LFG, consumer spending! 📈 Buy, buy, buy!
Of course, I am not exempt. A trip to Newbury Comics last night ended with
me walking out with new kitschy socks, 2 records, a comic book, and for my son,
a manga book and a single pack of Pokemon cards. Retail therapy is real. While
my tone may be sarcastic and somewhat (read: entirely) cynical, I am
self-aware. I admit: I enjoy giving and receiving gifts. At the same time,
maybe there’s an opportunity to stem the tide of further dumping cheap plastics
into our landfills? (I promise. I can be fun at parties.)
So here’s a thought: make a few trips around your home, grab anything and
everything taking up space, anything you no longer need or want or have given
thought to in months, if not years, and ask yourself “would someone else want
or use this”. If the answer is “yes”, then put that thing up on CraigsList,
Facebook Marketplace, or Ebay. Or all three. Get it in the hands of someone who
wants it, for less money than on Amazon, and get it out of your house. You make
some money in the process, and make some further space in your home. Win, win,
and win.
For the past month I’ve gotten rid of unused video games, comic books,
electronics, toys, and sneakers. Somewhere there’s someone receiving those
packages in the mail, happy to have them, while I’m happy to NOT have them. The
funds from these sales have gone towards my ability to purchase a new iPad,
something I use every single day for entertainment and productivity. No wasted
space or unused utility there.
Seriously, there’s just so much crap everywhere! 😩
Last thought: selling on eBay has improved considerably over the years. I’m
genuinely surprised at how quick and easy it is these days to get something up
there and ready to go. The “use AI to write a description” feature, while
obvious and transparent as to the results’ origins, is SUPER helpful. I always
disliked that step in the process, but also did not want to lazily write “just
look at the damn photos” for all listings. I consider this generated content a
reasonable middle ground.
An illustration of what solo entrepreneurship, in retrospect, would feel like.
Nine years ago, I embarked on a journey with Shubox, a
solution to simplify uploading to, and working with, Amazon’s S3. This venture
not only evolved along with my career but offered rich lessons worth sharing. In
addition to my day job, I work on it my nights and weekends. This is some
background information for the basis of a story I’ve participated and observed
throughout my career.
The story looks a little like:
You move on from full-time software engineering employment.
Hang a shingle out your door, advertising your new, independent contracting/consulting business.
Work with great clients, get paid (well). Make ends meet.
Leave enough time for yourself to build your own product, perhaps launch your own SaaS.
…?
Make enough money off your SaaS to devote 100% of your time to that product.
I’ve done this and currently remain at step #5. I’ve known many
colleagues and friends who’ve also done this. The ratio of people who get to
step 5 and never manage to see step 6 is, most likely, in the 98%
range[2]. It should go without
saying that this particular hustle is way way more difficult than we
would want or expect. I guess if it were different, we’d have every tech-hub
over-populated by wealthy, bootstrapped, side-hustle-preneurs.
Would I discourage anyone from following this path? No, absolutely not. The
likelihood they catch the right wave is slim, but the probability they learn an
extraordinary amount is high. If learning is a goal, then you are inherently
set up to succeed. With that, here are some of the things I’ve learned along
the way while building Shubox.
Being “Solo”
I started Shubox because I saw a problem (uploading files
from your website to S3) more than several times that grew to an “itch” that
compelled me to “scratch”. Why was there nothing better? Surely there was
something to fill my requirements that took less time to wire together? After
building the POC I was convinced I was onto something. This was now doing what
I wanted!
Building something you are so certain the world needs - that feeling is
intoxicating. “The world needs this! I can’t believe this doesn’t exist! It’ll
sell itself!” …Maybe? Coding it is just the beginning. A semi-functional POC
will get you only so far. What about design? Marketing? Product management?
Social engagement? User research?
In addition to being a strong engineer, if you are equally skilled in any of
the above, you are fortunate. I’ll tell you what? I am not. So let’s talk about
being “solo”. When it’s just you, you are all of those functions. If you
can’t, or don’t want to, fake it, then you’re going to pay for it. Literally.
Even so, that is a singular transaction. Those partners will only be around for
so long. What happens then?
Solo. Alone. No one to bounce ideas off of. No one to share in defining
strategy. No one to lean on, or hold you accountable. No one to review your work.
No one to tell you when something is a bad idea.
It’s lonely. The experience of trying to build Shubox has
been lonely. If I could go back and change something, I wouldn’t have gone down
this road without a partner, and will most likely never do that again[2].
Know Yourself
How well do you know yourself? I mean, really know yourself? Have you done
the work to inspect the depths of your strenghts and weaknesses? I find
self-awareness to be an incredibly underrated trait. What are your flaws? Are
you clear on what motivates you? What discourages you? What you’re terrified
of, but would never in a million years admit to? You may not be familiar with
these unknown unknowns yet , but putting yourself through the process of
starting and running a business will surface these, over time, almost
certainly.
For example, I now know I have a distaste for marketing me, putting myself
“out there”. I am modest to a fault and would much rather play hype-man for
friends, and colleagues. Building in the open? Why would anyone care? I’m just
some random guy!
I also know I’d rather work on “this technical thing”, than pour effort and
cycles into the marketing, promotion, selling. It’s so much easier to be neck
deep in code building something.
And - this one’s tough - do you know you can never really fail if you don’t
really try? Not gonna lie, this one hurts. It’s taken me a long time to
confront this in particular. There’s a voice in the depths of the back of my
brain, haunting me: “If I don’t allow this get big, then will I ever truly
fail?” It’s a process to recognize and confront those voices, one truth at a
time.
Accountability
As mentioned previously, the lack of accountability remains one of
the more profoundly affecting missing pieces of the puzzle. When there’s no one
to report to, where do you go? Who is there to keep you honest? Over the years
upon reflection, the biggest challenges I’ve managed to overcome had
accountability as a central tenant, providing me a ballast to keep my
ship upright, to stay on course. If you are accountable to no one, then you are
accountable to no one. Find that person, those people, even if they don’t
really care! Email them! Say “I’m going to do this”, then follow up. If you
do not accomplish what you set out to do, be honest, be vulnerable, know
yourself, and truly know why you did or did not do what you said you would.
Finally
This post has been living in my head for months while I work through how I’m
moving forward. My publishing this, in and of itself, is a large part of the
process where I come to grips with those fears, uncertainties, hard truths,
while allowing myself to feel uncomfortable. I am at peace knowing that failure
isn’t truly failure if I’ve set out on that journey, did my best, learned
something, and can look back with no regrets.
So, here we are!
Stay tuned.
More to come.
Footnotes:
Let’s pick an easy arbitrary number for that population
of “smart friends who went solo-preneur” - 100 people. Of those 100 people I
know 2 people - TWO! - who have made a thing, bootstrapped it, and had
successful exits. ↵
What do you think of what I’m doing with
Shubox? Any interest in talking about what the future
holds for the product? Hit me up! (My email is easy to find, or on Mastodon
@jayroh@ruby.social.) I would still
love to find that co-founder! ↵
If I’m lucky, I manage to get to about one comics convention a year. Typically that’s
FanExpo here in Boston, but this year it was Terrificon down in CT at the Mohegan Sun
Casino.
The main draw for this was absolutely the creator guest list, which was – I won’t
mince words – for me, staggeringly good. As a kid, I got into these books in the
late 80’s, early 90’s, at the height of the “mutant” craze. Some of the names most ubiquitous
during that time – Chris Claremont, Alan Davis, Walt and Louise Simonson, Arthur Adams –
were all in attendance this weekend, among many other heavy-hitting artists and writers.
As a result? I had to go.
I pulled together a small stack of books I wanted signed, and made my way down to CT. The
day was long, the lines were longer, but thanks to the folks at the CBCS booth I was
able to wrangle witnessed signatures and get them submitted for grading. It’s not
something I do often, but this time around I went the “treat yo-self” route. YOLO, and
all that.
There was no shortage of people. My anxiety didn't let me forget it 😅
Arthur Adams - a personal GOAT, an absolute legend.
Four of the Arthur Adams books I had signed
Speaking of legends! Mr Chris Claremont, the creator of who most (myself included) would consider the canonical Uncanny X-Men.
No signature limits for Claremont so ... shoot your shot, attendee guy.
Walt and "Weezy" Simonson (!!!)
Ryan Ottley, one of my favorites current artists, holding Hulk #1
Tom King and Mitch Gerads - two of DC's best modern-day creators
Rick Leonardi at work
Several of the books I'd gotten signed, getting ready to be shipped off to CBCS for grading, and slabbing
And finally, my very dear old friend Tim, who drove up from his side of CT and that I don't get to see nearly as much as I would like
Last week we learned that our CEO of 16 years, Stefania Mallett, would be
stepping down as CEO of ezCater. After next month she’ll be embarking on the
next chapter of her life, retirement(-ish?). I mention this because this week
we had the company’s summer party, AKA “Summer Sweetness”. So it’s fitting that
we all got together to celebrate the last year+, and her time as the leader
of a company which I consider the best in my 20+ years-long career. The past
4 years have been some of the hardest, and some of the most rewarding of my
work life. An inordinate amount of credit should be paid to Stefania, as the
company she’s built is built on core principles that align well with my own. No
place is perfect, and each individual’s journey is their own, but I’m grateful
for my time here. To that, I say congrats to her, and I am forever grateful
for all she’s done. Kudos!
This week we hosted an epic Summer Sweetness, @ezCater's annual event that brings employees from all over the country to our Boston office for a week of connection, collaboration & celebration 😎
We pride ourselves on our incredible culture & people—this week reminds us why💚 pic.twitter.com/T2JKEXkofW
Aaaaaanywho – “ezCater Summer Sweetness ‘23”! There’s not much that I may say with
words that I can’t better express with photos. The people I work with make it
the place it is. So here are some photos with my co-workers from the several days
this week where we all got together.
(If anyone from my team ever reads this? Thank you for everything you do. Day
in. Day out. You are all remarkable people!)
07.18.2023: After lunch group photo in Post Office Square.
07.19.2023: Our captain, tour-guide, and knower-of-all-things "Boston Harbor" -- Scott.
07.19.2023: My co-workers, friends, and fellow Harbor-sailers enjoying a leisurely ride.
07.19.2023: It was a good trip! 👍
07.19.2023: Members, past and present, of a team I'd previously lead, but forever comrades.
07.19.2023: Myself and Derek. All smiles.
07.19.2023: Myself and Marco. Also all smiles, and potentially clearly quite tipsy!
Hello, I'm Joel. Hi! 👋
An engineering manager in Boston.
"Tooter" on Mastodon @jayroh.
Here I write about my family, my (bull)dogs, code and technology, and working on a little passion project named
shubox.
