We were in a position far too familiar for most startups: panic mode.

Some might call it a coincidence that Washington won a championship right after we moved to town. We call it fate.

It’s weird. It’s weird when you take the chance to look back at how far you’ve come and see how much has changed. It’s weird when the complete free-for-all transforms into processes and structure. It’s weird growing up.

We knew we were going to be stretched a little thin but we’re young! And have energy! And can work our way through anything!

It worked pretty well when launching K.C. It should work again, right?

My mind raced back to California. Jumping on the fast-track to corporate success sounded like the right move. The sunny, 75 degree weather and lure of easy west coast living was too good to turn down. But for some reason I did.

Focusing on the negatives is too simple — the tough part is admitting it. But there is just as much joy in the the failures as there is in the solutions. Once we acknowledged that simple truth, it changed everything.