Leftover pizza

Every big change starts with an epiphany. For me, it started with this box of leftover pizza.

I was working on a prop-tech startup at the time (at least we wanted it to become prop-tech) but my software development skills were still pretty lousy, developers were expensive and we had to work with whatever small resources we had. I was fresh out of university and for me at the start, this meant renting out my room on Airbnb (while sleeping on the sofa) and using that income along with whatever small saving I had to pay for our first developer.

Slowly the business scaled, we had 10–15 people working for us and a good bunch of clients. Our revenue grew to about 650k for that year and we were working to increase it by next year. Still, I ended up doing a lot of on the ground floor work, as we realised our online reviews were largely affected by what happened on the ground floor.

So I played quality control, I met most of our cleaners and assisted them in whatever way I could (check supplies, make purchases, document damage etc.)

One of those days I got into a property with a cleaner just a few hours after a client had left, it was early afternoon, and as I often skip breakfast by that time I’m usually starving. There was a semi-fresh box of leftover pizza on the kitchen table and I went straight for it.

I offered a slice to my cleaner companion and he strongly declined; “I would never put that inside of my body”. I paused, looked at the pizza in contemplation and had it anyway.

But that made me think… I knew he ‘technically’ made far less money than me at £10 an hour. But he had something I didn’t, and I was curious.

Why did he value his gut more than I valued mine? Did I value other things about me less too, like my time?

It started to dawn on me.

I was turning 24 at the time and I was already experiencing a number of poor health symptoms but they’ve become my normal. I was frequently tired, I reacted to almost any food I eat, my throat would tighten up and I would breath more heavily, my skin became very very sensitive and would flare up in red whenever I touch my face or changed a shirt.

It was far from normal, but feeling lousy and miserable with myself was my normal. I had a terrible diet, I worked all hours in the day and would not have time for proper meals, instead I snacked on whatever junk food I bought from the corner shops.

My cleaner friend even suggested I buy these sachets of mixed superfruit and nut goo which he said he consumed for energy instead of snacking on junk when he didn’t have time to eat. I bought a bunch.

I realised my life was hard or miserable because I forgot to look after myself. I took care of everybody around me first; my partner, our employees, our clients and I put myself at the bottom of that list.

Not just that it was hurting me, but it was hurting our business too. Our gross profit margin was very low because I did a lot of work for free. I didn’t value my time and felt bad for charging for my work.

Old habits or self-assumptions are really hard to change. But in the context of building a startup, it hurt more to stay the same than it hurt to change, and I did.

I decided to value my time accordingly and set myself a rule not to work on any task or lift my ass off the sofa (I worked from home) for less than £1,000 worth. I made it a noble decision as I explain to myself if my work is to cover the salaries for 15–20 people I can’t work for any less.

And this started to show results, our profit margins increased and we finished the following year with 1.3M in annual revenue and a 30% gross profit margin.

I also made my health a priority, I signed up for an exclusive gym membership, bought a few months worth of healthy home-delivered food on subscription, and even paid for a personal trainer.

I’ve done numerous health test and checkups and have been tracking myself on a variety of metrics ever since.

Same as we are told on every flight, in case of emergency don’t forget to put on your mask first then proceed to help others. If we don’t look after ourselves first, we can’t possibly extend this care to people around us. The longer we are alive and healthy the more good we can do for others.

Don’t forget about your own mask, and once you succeed, don’t forget to share your achievements and help the people around you too.