Mark Corum - what was the toughest lesson to success?

Mark Corum shares his greatest struggle on the path to success.

Listen to the full episode here:

https://rss.com/podcasts/proteaconversations/1517769/

Connect with Mark:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/markcorum/

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You're talking about life being pretty great right now and you're being super happy, but I'm sure along the way there's been some challenges.

(00:06):
So what was your biggest challenge getting to where you are right now?
The biggest challenge was probably making the decision to go into programming.
I was a tough moment in my life because at that point I was so burnt out on like the idea of entrepreneurship at that point.
I've been trying for what I think was probably close to eight years or so at that point to get something off the ground.

(00:29):
And then I finally did.
And then when I did, I didn't really get to that level that I was really hoping I would be at at that time.
And so I was like, can I really make this change?
Can I go into something else?
And then also I was kind of resigning myself a little bit.
I'm like, you know what?
I'm just not going to do anything entrepreneurial again.

(00:50):
See how that worked out, obviously.
I'm not going to do I'm going to get, you know, get into programming and I'm just going to work a job and I'm just going to be like happy to have a job.
Give much credit to my business partner who my programming partner because honestly, I don't think I would have done anything new if it wasn't for the fact he explicit where you reached out to me.
And I was like, you know what?

(01:10):
Why not?
I'll do something and it really did work out.
Otherwise, I probably would still be in a job to this day.
And I would probably it was just it was a very sad thing for me because I love flexibility of schedule.
I want it to be a thing where if it's nice outside, I can be like, you know what?
I'm not going to work today and I'm going to go outside and have time.

(01:30):
Enjoy the sun while it's out.
Yep.
And that's just something I could never get behind in a company.
The idea that you just had to be there from like a certain time to a certain time.
It just it soul crushing for me personally.
I'm sure everybody feels that way to a degree.
Yeah.
But for me, it's almost overwhelming.
Yeah.
I mean, I didn't realize how much I disliked it until I wasn't doing it anymore and moved away from this input based world to an output based world where as long as I get my job, then people are happy versus how many hours are in your on at your desk today?

(02:02):
Oh, only 14.
That's not good enough.
You should be.
Yeah.
That's a that's an insane way to live.
Honestly, for me, I try to put that into the corporate into my culture, but I'm hoping that I can maintain
this culture of, you know what?
You're an adult.
You do what you need to do for the day.
And, you know, if you're doing good, then you can do whatever you want for all I care.

(02:26):
But yeah, I'm basically like myself.
I'm just like, you know what?
I'm done it too.
That's when my brain is done is about two o'clock.
I'm like, yep.
I don't have it in me to work on anything of value anymore.
And that's just a great feeling to have.
And I mean, you've basically given us a great leadership lesson there as well.

(02:47):
If you're setting the example of, you know, work hard when you are working and take the time for yourself when you are.
Like that's a good lesson for anybody that's working for you and creates culture and good cultures like that tend to create good environments that create good businesses that tend to be successful.