Yesterday was a sad day for me personally and for the company in general. One of our star employees S, left the company to pursue higher education and try his hands at his own startup.

But … thats a good thing, right? I mean … isn’t this what we should yearn for? People we have come to know and trust should expand their horizons and move on to other, better and higher things?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. And I agree. But that cannot take away a very human emotion from me. It still feels like a loss.

What started as a short trial because we had an opening, and he was free for a few months turned out to be a great thing lasting over a year. Sure there were trying times. At first I wasn’t sure if having a close friend as an employee was the best thing … how do you watch a movie together, go have dinner and crash in the other person’s living room … and then next morning try to get all professional and get work done? How do you then look him in the eye in a status meeting, tell them they screwed up … complain about why things are taking so long, etc, etc. Then, over the weekend, plan their birthday party?

But just as often, there were times that made it all appear perfect. The fact that I didn’t need to bother keep looking at his work … if he could do it, he would. If not … he would be the first to throw it back at me with a reason why. Then … there was the fact that he was the only other person in the office who agreed with me that milk and cereal were an important part of the morning!

I think this has been one of the strongest tests of my friendship, with anyone, ever. And the fact remains … we have become closer friends.

In the final analysis … this was a good thing. Maybe the best of things. The company got a great person to join our team. He got to expand his horizons. I got to spend more time with him … having more bowls of cereal and lunches together in the last one year than in all the years of college put together. We got to understand what drives us. What motivates us. How would we react to different situations and how much we could depend on each other. I would have never been able to find out these things about him had we just taken classes together, partied together or flown home together (All of which we did, too).

Startup Business Entrepreneur

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