Who does the world need you to be?

I recently hit my 5 year anniversary at Gusto. 5 years is a long time in tech, so I figure I’d share this reflection.

The other day I stumbled upon my old Weebly portfolio page. Lots of dead links. Many to the Boston College website, where I worked in film/media/marketing for ~5 years. A dead link, not exactly I was looking for. But sitting there in lieu of a 404 was a redirect to a reminder of the Jesuit ideals: ‘Who does the world need you to be?’

The spirit of that question has carried me throughout my adult life. Who does the world need you to be? And that’s what drew me to Gusto. Building stuff for real people.

I was at a climbing gym the other day wearing a Gusto t-shirt. The manager runs out excited. Turns out they used to use Gusto, but left. Missed it, and wanted back in.

At RailsConf, a Gustomer showed up and said how he loved Gusto. But particularly appreciated a small feature (Gusto Recruiting), which I had built and released secretly as a side project. Of all the great features he picked, it was shocking that it was something that would exist without my (and a couple other’s) efforts.

Also, the customer who came up and complained about all the stuff my team has been recently working towards and building.

They are using Gusto because they need it, and I’m privileged with that opportunity to serve Gustomers. That’s my current focus and goal. Not meetings. Not sprints. Not changing roadmaps. Not internal politics. Or whatever meaningless frameworks people and the industry comes up with. Actually building stuff that helps all the small businesses out there.

And currently Gusto allows me to that, even after 5 years. I’m lucky to be living the dreams and values that all of that Jesuit education instilled in the agnostic in me. There’s a risk and likelihood that that won’t always be the case. But as long as it allows, I’ll hopefully continue to be ‘Who the world needs me to be.’