As I shared in the previous post, I listened to Tim Ferriss’s interview with Whitney Wolfe Herd, the CEO of Bumble. She mentioned that her first choice of name for Bumble was Moxie. It means, ‘force of character, determination, or nerve.’ I loved that. I’m a sucker for rarely-used words, so this one was right up my alley.
The most significant way this value showed was the manner in which I planned my trip to Sri Lanka. I’m usually someone who likes to be cautious and well-planned. I like having an itinerary, I like my hotel stays booked, and I like knowing what’s going to happen from the very beginning until the day I return home. Inspired by moxie, I decided to take a trust-based approach to the trip. It was frankly scary but also exciting. I later found out that I was well able to surf the wave of ambiguity and openness. It shouldn’t have surprised me, in hindsight. This was what I’d discovered working with early-stage startups too. I seem to thrive in the excitement of not having everything laid out and being the one to set things up from scratch.
I should also note that just the feeling I had holding this value at the back of my mind was amazing. The difference was one of sure-footedness vs doubt, clarity vs ambiguity. It makes me wonder how many values we can embody by literally just holding them at the back of our minds because that was essentially what happened here.