My dad is from Norway.
The traditions and norms he grew up with are different than those of our country. He has spent more time living in the USA than in Norway, so, for the most part, it is hard to tell the difference, but there are some times where it is a bit more obvious.
One of those times was when it came to me receiving my driver’s license.
In Norway, you become an adult at 18. You can drink, smoke, drive and join the army. I appreciate the logic. If you are old enough to go and fight in a war, you should be able to drive yourself home from the airport and have a drink and a smoke when you get home.
With this policy as a framework, it’s easy to see why the USA’s policies on adulthood might seem strange. It is much more gradual and staggered than in Norway. You can drive at 16, join the army at 18, smoke at 18, and you have to wait until you are 21 to drink.
All of this was weird to my dad, but he was especially skeptical of the whole driving-at-16 thing.
Because of this skepticism, the bar for me getting my license was not just doing enough driving to pass the test proving to the government I could drive safely.
I had to prove it to my father.
We spent many, many, many hours driving together before I finally reached this bar. I must have doubled or tripled the required amount of driving time in order to finally satisfy his European skepticism.
My dad would always find excuses for us to go on long drives (even for the most pointless things). We must have driven up to our cabin in the mountains and back three or four times that summer because he left his sunglasses or a pair of socks he liked.
At the time, I thought all this additional driving was somewhat annoying. All my friends barely needed to drive at all (a fact which now scares the living daylight out of me), and here I was crisscrossing the great state of Colorado in my spare time.
I now look at these drives incredibly fondly.
My favorite part was the great conversations we would have as I drove up curving mountain passes while my dad lounged with his feed up on the dash.
Ok Erik, where are you going with this?
Getting there.
On one such trip, my dad and I were talking about work. What his career had been like. The highs and the lows. My dad came to the United States as a college student and spent some time in consulting before starting his own private equity firm where he has worked ever since.
I was at the stage where I was starting to contemplate what I wanted to do with my life and it was the first time I can really remember talking about his career in some detail.
He told me that the proudest moment of his career was when he purchased a company with 600 employees and sold it a short time later with 1,000 employees. This was a good financial outcome for him, but that’s not why it was his best moment.
He said that he got the most pride, not from the sales multiple, but from the feeling that he had built something. That he had provided 400 people with jobs that they could be proud of. Jobs in which they could find dignity and fulfillment, and most importantly, jobs that they could support their family with.
This conversation stands out as one of the most seminal moments of my entire life.
In some ways, you can divide my life into two chapters. Before this car ride, and after.
Before, I was aimless. I didn’t have a specific path or idea of what I wanted to do. I coasted through life and school without really working towards anything.
Ever since that day, I have had a North Star.
Like my father was before me, I want to be a company builder.
I believe that the highest good that you can do for someone is to give them a job where they can find pride, dignity, and fulfillment, all while being able to provide a good life for themselves and their family.
This has been my guiding North Star and has informed every decision I have made so far in my career.
It is why I wanted to become an investor. So that I could become a partner in the company growth process and provide the capital that companies need to support this growth.
It is why I joined The Carlyle Group out of college. To learn from the best in the world how companies are built and run.
It is why I transitioned from private equity into venture capital. To be able to get involved with companies from the earliest stages where I could be a true partner in the building process as opposed to working with companies once they have matured. In venture capital, I could hop into the trenches and work shoulder to shoulder with entrepreneurs trying to change the world. Where I could invest in tech companies that provide some of the highest quality jobs that you can find.
Venture capital is the absolute highest point of leverage I have found in the pursuit of my North Star.
I aspire to be a builder of great companies. Companies that are providing products or services that the world needs. Companies that delight their customers by building something meaningful.
Building companies is my North Star.
It’s what matters most to me.
It has defined every decision I have made in my career so far and I know that it will continue to serve as a guiding light in the future.