Learning to Fly NEIL DAWSON TALKS GROWTH, GUSTO, AND EYEING THE BIGGER PICTURE.
It’s a relatively chilly Friday morning and I can’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu. It’s all so familiar: the route, the humidity, the cold brew pit stop, the grasping of the architect scale door handle, the lingering reminder that I should have gone home before that last glass of wine the night before and the sound of the far too appreciable heeled trek up to the third floor honoring the ‘please use the stairs’ sign posted to the elevator door. ‘Routine’ is an understatement when describing my day-to-day life. Inefficiency basically intoxicates me, so why fight saved time and added structure? In the words of my favorite barista that can predict my arrival time daily, “I’d be easy
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to murder.” It comes as no surprise then that I find myself standing here, nearly two years later, having completed my morning grind exactly as I had a thousand times before except for one tiny detail: this time I was a guest. A guest standing by in the impeccably industrial lobby of my old office anxiously awaiting a conversation with my former boss. With the go-ahead from the receptionist, I make my way back to Neil’s office. Someone else had just popped in to speak with him, so I indulged in a chat with his assistant prompting yet another reminder of a previous protocol; a daily drill so familiar it was if no time had passed.
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