After twelve years on various boards, the speaker is stepping back from formal board roles. He found the work devolved into a repetitive game of asking gotcha questions and poking holes, losing the initial appeal. He'll keep advising in other ways.
Chapters
All right, good morning everybody. I'm in beautiful, fabulous Provence in the south of France, and as I was walking with that beautiful landscape and setup and settings, I thought about, hey, maybe it's time to discuss about another round of, hey, what is it that I'm not going to do? So what is it that I'm not going to do is being a board member or advisor to the board of a company. I really thought about that one for long. I wanted actually to do it, and I had a few advisors to the board seats, but I decided not to do it anymore. Never say never, maybe I will do it at some point, but not in the foreseeable future. Why? Well, I don't want to be that guy. What do I mean is I have been presenting to boards since roughly 2014, '13. So for the most part of the past 12 years on a monthly basis, on a quarterly basis, on an ad hoc basis, private, public, you name it, VC-owned, PE-owned, all of them. And although they're different, there are some similarities. It's exciting. I remember the first board that I presented to. And it was really exciting for me to be here, and I thank the people who gave me that opportunity. That being said, after a while you realize that there is kind of routine, that you're always getting the same questions. The time you have really, really to pinch yourself, thinking, is that person really asking me that stupid question? At times also you have great questions, but most of the time it's always the same thing. It's always about poking people in the eye. It's always about finding A crack in the armor, so to speak, and also to prove to the rest of the board that you're the most clever person in the room. So, microcosm of corporate America in 4 or 5 or 6 people. And I thought to myself, do I want to be on the other side of the table? Do I want to be that guy? Well, no, I don't. So I decided not to pursue that as my next chapter. And what is it that I'm going to miss? About not being a board advisor or a board member is actually advising. I love using my experience and giving it to other people. So note to myself, for whatever I'm going to do next, it has to have some kind of advising. So we'll talk about that later. But that was one more thing that I didn't want to do anymore or moving forward. All right. Thanks for listening. And if you have comments, put them down here. Um, and I talk to you later. Thank you. Bye.
