The Entrepreneur With A Thousand Faces (Plus, My LA Trip Recap)

If you plan on starting your own company, you’ll quickly find out that there are often an overwhelming amount of moving pieces. The grind never stops.

In fact, it often feels like an epic journey.

Have you read Joseph Campbell’s book, The Hero With a Thousand Faces?

Campbell was an anthropologist and mythologist who travelled the world in search of the common threads that connect humanity.

As he delved deeper into the beliefs that make us human, he found something surprising: We tell stories in startlingly similar patterns.

All over the world, even in previously “uncontacted” regions of the globe, we depict the process of struggle and triumph using the same symbolism.

From his work, he developed the Monomyth, which is the a theory that describes the universally-understood pattern of triumph over adversity, as told from the hero’s perspective. It looks something like this:

The Hero’s Journey

The Monomyth is fascinating —here’s a great video explanation if you’re curious–

— but the gist is simple: The hero starts in his world, gets called to adventure, overcomes obstacles, and comes back  a new person (often bearing the “elixir.”)

The journey through entrepreneurship will often make you feel like the hero at the center of your own myth.

You get the idea. The creative spark that fuels your quest. Then, you’re tasked with building a team of supporters around the idea. This requires you to manage people.

All the while, it’s your responsibility to  manage the product. You have to oversee the creation you’re breathing life into.

How does it work?

How can you make it the best in the world?

How can you make the infeasible… feasible?

Getting this right is no small feat.

Finally, you have to manage the process. How does all of this get done? Who’s responsible for what? Are you on schedule or behind? What questions need to be answered in order to move forward?

For the past 8 months, I’ve been focusing a lot of my energy and effort into finding the right people and building a world-changing product.

But to move forward, I knew it was time for me to start focusing on the process — specifically, meeting people to discuss potential partnerships, and building things together that the Pavlok team can’t do alone.

So I scheduled several meetings in Los Angeles to get the ball rolling.

Over the past week, my team and I met with:

• Private investors
• A venture capital firm
• A healthcare software company
• An incredible production company (for our Kickstarter video)

The results were even better than we’d anticipated. From a handful of meetings, we have several new partnerships on the table. I can’t make any announcements right now because things are still being finalized — but needless to say, everyone is excited.

But here’s the cool part: Not only was there a lot of interest in what we’re doing — but taking these meetings really opened my eyes to possibilities for Pavlok that I hadn’t even considered before. The new infusion of ideas energized my team. We’re more inspired than ever.

None of that could have happened it we hadn’t stepped outside the comfort zone of the “known” — the people and the product — and into the “unknown” to look for partnerships.

Now, we’re officially on our journey. I think Campbell would be proud.

If you want to get periodic updates about what’s happening at Pavlok, including “skip-the-line” access to the device when it comes out, you can sign up here (free).