Standup Men
I want to talk about a few special men that have appeared in my life in a few similar contexts recently. I want to appreciate them. I will do so knowing that not everyone is cisgender, not everyone who does amazing things for a partner is a man (women have been at this for quite some time), and perhaps all this should go without a shout out. But I believe in loud appreciation, so with those caveats, here goes.
In the last week, I have participated in three different events that featured accomplished men behaving in complete service of their partners’ work. As I said, maybe this is just all in a day’s work, but what I loved so much about all of these examples was how fun, genial, and seemingly joy-filled these guys were just…being of service.
First, we held a Break the Fast Book Chat for my book, Never Ask for the Sale and GiveFirst. Brad Feld and we chose Greeley Sachs’ new bookstore, Composition Shop, as the venue. What a choice! Incredibly beautiful spot with a thoughtfully curated inventory (nudge: the holidays are coming!). The event was fun, yummy, and people bought a lot of books. Who rang them up at the till? Greeley’s husband, legendary VC Seth Levine. With a smile. In uniform!
The multitalented Shay Har-Noy, Gregg Spiridellis, and not pictured, Anders Hester (on parking duty!)
Second, I joined 100 fantastic women in business for a Mile-High Mavens event one evening. The group and the event were led by luminous women, including Katie Jacobs Stanton, Jaclyn Hester, Jenn Rosenthal, Elle Bruno, and Pamela Sousa. The evening was at Jaclyn’s home, outside on a vast field adjacent to some farmland, and the entire group of women was served (drinks, food, parking assistance), for hours, by the three well-adorned men, two of whom were the partners of two of the head Mavens.
Finally, for many, many events, my man Eliot Ephraim has been carting boxes of books, handing out said books to the designated event attendees, schlepping bagels, lox, and bubbly water, and managing my high-amplitude emotions around a book launch and everything that comes with it.
What I love in every one of these cases isn’t the help itself. I mean, that’s great, but it’s what people do. We all do it. Um, I hope I do it. In truth, I probably do it more readily for friends than for the person who signed up to be with me for the easy and the hard times (is it just me?). What I love is the going-all-the-way spirit of these contributions. No one at that farm was in evening wear. Just Shay.
I hope if you’re reading this, you have at least one person who will show up with that go-all-the-way spirit with and for you. I hope if you are reading this you have that muscle inside you. If so, I probably wrote this for myself. To remind me of what genuine, full-throated support looks like. So that when I get the next call, I can pull out my eveningwear or my company uniform and do way more than the doing of the thing. I can do my part to amplify the magic as these men did.
Any thoughts, feelings, or blurts? Share them here.