In the first weeks of 2019, I watched Warren Buffet and Bill Gates’ talk about time. “I can buy anything I want, basically, but I cannot buy time”, Buffet says. This was immensely meaningful to me, as my personal mission for the past two years has revolved around time and gaining full control of how I invest my time.
HELLO – I am Xenia. I used to work in corporate organizations. I put in a lot of work, a lot of hours and a lot of my life. I worked in owner-led organizations and put more hours into management meetings than reading to and tucking in my two young sons. Finally, in 2017 I left. Instead, I decided to invest my time in my family and startups. In that order.
So what have I learned?
I have never been healthier. I have never been happier. I have never had this much energy. I used to come home and fall asleep on the couch before my kids’ bedtime. Today, everything I do GIVES me energy. (Yes of course I still get tired, I have four kids. One of them is a nine months old baby 😊).
Whenever I meet people from my network, who are in corporate positions, working endless days and climbing career ladders in large organizations, I tell them to invest in startups or become entrepreneurs themselves. Why? Because I see how much energy is in that field, how much inspiration and motivation people get from interacting with entrepreneurs. Even if you are never planning to leave corporate, the insights and out-of-the-box thinking you will experience as a mentor to a startup is well worth it, and will probably not only give you a sense of purpose, but will nudge you into rethinking how you do your job, how you spend your time and how you live your life. In a good way 😊!
Today, people frequently reach out to me to volunteer to work for a startup as an advisory board member, board member or mentor.
Most of them will work for coffee and cookies, because they know and understand that the payment is much more than that. It is joy, happiness and sense of purpose.
(If you think, I am exaggerating, ask someone you know who is volunteering at a startup.)
Time Angels
So I have decided to create TIME ANGELS. It’s a platform, where you can sign up to invest your time in startups. Its like a business angel, but instead of cash, you invest your time. You can choose to work for coffee and cookies, sweat equity, or whatever compensation the startup is able to pay you.
Interested in investing your time?
First published on LinkedIn on January 20th, 2019.