The title of this post seemed to be the theme of the recent ifridge Village in Maui last week. Our team came together from Germany and the US to work hard and play hard. The lines between work and play were definitely blurred at times. I was thinking about why this was and here is what I came up with.
You know that high you get when you are going on an adventure, like horseback riding through the rain forest on Maui, or swimming in the ocean and hearing mother and baby whales talking to each other under water? That feeling of, “this is soooo cool and fun and even kind of scary at the same time.” Well, we definitely felt that doing all the adventures at ifridge Village. But we also felt that same feeling sitting in a conference room from 9am to 10:30 pm, (at least for most of those long hours.) It was that high of working really hard and knowing that we are all part of something really important and cool.
The work we are doing at ifridge is important - “we build great companies!” But this is also very cool because we build great companies!
At the end of the last session of ifridge Village, we were exhausted to say the least but we all gave our thoughts on the week and on ifridge in general. Jesse Waxman said something that really struck me. “When I’m out with friends after work, I notice many of them are miserable and not happy with their work life.” Jesse went on to say that when he got home he felt a sense of accomplishment and looked forward to going back the next day. I think I can speak for the rest of the team by saying we all feel the same way. It’s rare to be a part of a company that not only works with great customers, but is fun and challenging to work for.
Oh, and by the way, I am constantly and was once again blown away by how intelligent and diverse the ifridge team is. The ideas, concepts and general discussions that took place (in the conference room and on our adventures) were exciting and thought provoking to say the least.
We came out of ifridge Village with a lot of work ahead of us, but I know for certain that we will have a lot of fun getting that work done.
