A few reflections on my 40th birthday

So today is Sunday, April 11th, it’s 7:15am and I’m sitting at my desk in our apartment in San Francisco writing this post. Technically my Birthday isn’t until this Tuesday, April 13th, so as I write this I’m still 39. For my 40th Birthday, Daina (my wife) and I are spending a week in Yosemite, and for my first time in 14 years, I’m spending a week away from my blog.

Organizing and scheduling all the posts for this week has been quite a bit of work, but it has given me some perspective on everything that goes into this blog and makes me appreciate it more. I’m really excited about the content for this week so know that right now as you’re reading this and I’m sitting in Yosemite, turning 40, my blog is still there for you!

Okay, but enough preamble. It’s time to pour some coffee ☕️  and share a few reflections on turning 40. I’m going to do my best to keep this relatively short as I’m pretty darn excited to pack up the car and head to Yosemite 🤗

My first reflection on turning 40 is just a feeling of incredible gratitude. Both of my parents are alive, healthy, and vaccinated. My sister, her family and my extended family also have their health, and Daina and I are probably in the best shape of our lives thanks to our daily workout routine that has really thrived during COVID.

At the end of the day, I think my biggest reflection at 40 is that what really matters in life is your health and the health of your family and friends. The reality is, everything else is just the small stuff, and it’s not worth sweating the small stuff.

I know that as I get older, I’ll see my family and friends struggle with health issues, I will struggle with health issues, it’s an inevitable part of getting older. Today more than anything I feel incredibly grateful and just cherishing every moment I get to spend with the people I love.

The next reflection I have is on my career and our company – Bold Metrics. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to have the opportunity to build transformational technologies. We are closer than we have ever been to fundamentally changing the way the world works. Our technology is changing the way clothes are made, and in the process paving the way for a more sustainable future 🌍

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years building a software company it’s that the software is a far second to the team. We’ve had times in our journey where the team just wasn’t right, all of us were not marching to the beat of the same drum. The hardest part about running a company isn’t just finding talented people, the world is full of talented people – it’s finding talented people who believe in the vision and truly enjoy working together.

Today at Bold Metrics, we have that magic, a world class team and a company culture I’m really proud of. We’ve built a culture where people feel comfortable sharing ideas and knowing that their voice will be heard. I used to think of myself as a “product-person” now I can tell you, more than anything I’m a “team-person.”

Last but not least, I feel lucky to live in a world at a time where there are so many people who want to work together to build a better world and stronger communities. While you can certainly turn on the news and decide to focus on the bad in the world, I am very confident the good far outweighs the bad.

It has been an incredible experience living in San Francisco during a pandemic, and absolutely awe-inspiring to see the city come together and people help each other in so many amazing ways. I’ve heard of the same happening around the country and the world, and we now have a President who champions unity rather than division.

I believe the decade ahead will be a time for the world to grow closer together and for us to all celebrate our common goals as people. I personally will be doing everything I can to champion and celebrate this unity. We all have a choice on where we put our focus, and I think we’ve all seen over the last few years what can happen when people decide to myopically focus only on the bad.

There will always be bad in the world, it’s part of life, but I strongly believe that the vast majority of people are good and that’s where I’m putting my focus. I choose to live a life embracing positivity and believing in the awesome power of people to work together to make the world a better place.

So in short, my final reflection as I turn 40 is – there is so much to be excited about as we move forward as a global community and I look forward to doing my part to help bring us all closer together 🙏

Okay, well for some reason I thought I would be brief, but if there’s one thing you all probably know about me by now, I’m not great at that. Maybe some room for improvement? 🤷‍♂️

Thanks to all of my readers around the world for reading, one of my greatest honors in life is to be able to write this blog for all of you. Cheers to 40, here’s to the next 40 years and beyond 🍻

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton