#201: Happy Birthday George
I’ve spent the last 12 years building two businesses with George.
University, business, holidays, failure, relationships, ups, downs. We’ve been through a lot together.
We’ve become more than mates. Brothers. George is a big part of my life.
Today is his Birthday, Happy Birthday George!
Today, I’m grateful for the friends in my life and I’m reflecting on the healing and transformational power of true friendship..
George and I met at the University of Sheffield in 2010. I remember it well.
We were walking into town and he talked non-stop, fast. He was buzzing about Uni, his student-watch business (Watch It), Football and more. He was buzzing about life.
What followed was a mix of talking about relationships, Alan Partridge, how lucky we were to have this time at Uni and eventually startups. We talked about life, potential, opportunity.
I’d never felt entrepreneurial and I’d long had my creative side drummed out of me. Yet in our relationship, my spark was awoken. I changed.
That’s George’s gift. This ability to see people quickly and champion them loudly. He shines and smiles and laughs and the part of you that wants to smile and shine and laugh does too. He sees your passion probably before you do and without even needing to say much makes you not just believe you could do something with it, but makes you know you can.
We both became obsessed with the startup world and building something. We were alive and intoxicated by the idea. It was exciting. Our first idea was NightFinder, the premium student ticketing app. Then it was matchchat, the live sports social network. At the time, in our heads, both absolutely groundbreaking.
During this time, my email password was even ‘LivingTheDream.’ I really was. Anything was possible.
We fell into the startup world together. Both feeling like adventurers who’d found a new land of possibility. Where there were other people like us. Other believers.
We battled on in our first adventure with matchchat. We had our ups and our downs. We lived with each other in Sheffield, then Newcastle, then London. We became closer, then more apart. At one point during matchchat we were both depressed, we just didn’t know it.
George left, went travelling. I shut the business down and ran away. We both got ‘jobs’ and remembered what it was like to just be mates again.
Then, Sanctus emerged and pulled us both in. 6 years on and it’s been another wild ride together.
Friendships are complex and mysterious, it’s hard to define what brings people together or how a bond is created. I know there’s a mix of shared interest, values, experiences and memories that forge ties. I know the ties between George and I have been strengthened through our many experiences together.
Friendships are hard too. Old ones can be confusing “Wait, why are we mates? Would we be if we met now?”
Friendships bring out the best and worst in us. We see in others what we see in ourselves, or we don’t see in others what we can’t see in ourselves. Friends can remind us of that part of us we don’t like. Or they can trigger feelings in us from our past that we might not even be aware of. Friendships are a breeding ground for complex emotions.
There’s much I don’t know about friendships that I’m sure I’ll continue to uncover, and always will, that’s the beauty of two humans creating a bond, there’s change and there’s flux.
What I know for certain is that when a relationship is special, when a friend nourishes your soul and makes you fee alive. When you love a friend, truly, you have to hold on for dear life, because life has gifted you with something priceless.
We talk about romantic love and familial love. We even talk about pet love. Do we talk enough about the love of our friends? I think not.
I see it in all of my mates, in the way they look at each other, the way they laugh, or reach out, or joke the way kids in primary school let someone know they like them by picking on them. I see love.
George, I love you buddy and I love all my friends.
I hope I may have reminded you of a friend or a special relationship that’s dear to you. Could you find it in yourself to tell them you love them? Or you miss them? Or see how they are doing if it’s been a while? Or remember that time when you did this or that?
Happy Birthday George
x
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