I just had an amazing week.  It started out with an unhealthy dose of stress that led to incredible productivity at the beginning of the week.  We then had some unforecastable good things start to happen for the business (Note: “what Google gives, Google can take away”).  Finally, we made one of those small changes that more than doubled sales conversions — what was remarkable is that it wasn’t even one of ‘those changes’ that we were sure was going to work — instead, it was just something that we thought looked better, and that Daryn and I actually argued about a bit.  But, Harold‘s input was well-founded, and the results are incontrovertible.

That isn’t what this post is about, though.

This post is about the tremendous lows I was feeling prior to all of this (last week?).  And, a year ago, those lows could have really thrown me for a loop.  But now, I’m much more aware of them, and I often think that “if I’m this low today, then there must be some great stuff about to happen.”  Well, as always, I’m now in the middle of the great stuff.  I have to hope it’s only the beginning of a wicked, long wave, not just a short surge.

For now, I’ll enjoy the high.  I recommend that other startup leaders develop their ability to recognize their highs and lows and learn to work through them because there’s always the opposite waiting, right around the corner.

If you have to make binary tradeoffs on who to take your advice from, I’d recommend that you take it from someone who’s in the trenches, like Glenn Kelman, Andy Liu, or Ev Williams (and here) as their feedback may be a little moister, with recent blood, sweat, and tears (that is, if they have time to talk with you — my hunch is that you’ll be more likely to get a 4 sentence e-mail, as they won’t have the time to prepare for and attend a multi-day conference).

Yes, I know — my blogging has suffered in the last few weeks.

To our TeachStreet investors, trust me when I say that that’s a good thing. What it means is that we’re pushing extremely hard to meet our self-set goals. And, we’ve made incredible progress, and are still on pace for our launch aspirations (with regard to quality, coverage and timing).

To friends and family, I’m doing my best! If you haven’t heard from me, it’s not because I haven’t thought of you. Nor is it because I’d prefer to not be with you. Rather, it’s because this creation is a lot of work. I probably told you that I expected it to be hard, but I’ve always been one to learn by doing, as you know.

Which leads me to a post from Seth Godin that I thought was apt — he talks about how with new/important creations (in his post, he’s referring to the iPhone… in our case, we’re talking about our much more humble undertaking, TeachStreet) there are always many times where it would be much easier to just say “forget it”, and everyone would breathe huge sighs of relief, and move on.

However, we don’t do that — we can’t do that. We know the risks, and the odds of failure. But we also know how great it would be to make our dreams a reality. And how much hard work, stress, and yes… fun… it is, to give it a herculean effort.

So, that’s why my posting’s been more sporadic. See you in a few years 😉