The Soul of Startups

CHAPTER 4The Middle Manager

THE NEWS

A message came through. “Can you talk?,” Yasmin asked.

It was 6:00 p.m. on a Friday, and we'd all had a pretty heavy week with disciplinaries—the standard people issues you normally find in a startup. Without overthinking it, I said “Yes, ring me.” I could hear that she was probably at the park taking her evening walk.

“Hey, I am so sorry to do this to you, but I am resigning.” I could almost picture her smiling. I knew straight away this was good news for her and she wanted it to be for me, too. It took me 15 minutes to feel a sense of relief, but then I was ecstatic for her as she talked me through her thought process and how this was an opportunity that she couldn't let pass.

“It was hard for me to break the news to you, but I knew that you would understand it because in a lot of ways, we are very similar. For the past two years, we have talked about my growth and I now feel I am now ready to be on my own. Push myself out of the box as you did many years ago… ,” she trailed off.

“I understand, and I couldn't be more proud of you,” I told her. “Everything we have worked on together was meant to lead to this day. And I am so happy to see you become this strong, confident version of yourself that will carry on to great things in life. Your career is just at the beginning. This is truly bittersweet for both of us.”

She thanked me for all I had taught her over the two years she'd worked with me. Never once had we let each other down. We spent ...