Jerry Colonna Breaks Me Down On The Reboot Podcast

A few summers ago, I was driving from mid-Connecticut to JFK to pick up my brother-in-law. On that long drive down, I stumbled upon a podcast where Jason Calacanis and Jerry Colonna were chatting. I loved the discussion, listed to the entire podcast again, and wrote about it here. Embarrassingly at that time, I didn’t know “who” Jerry Colonna was.

Now I know.

Jerry’s current entrepreneurial endeavor is Reboot. Broadly speaking, Jerry and his team focus on coaching in an entrepreneurial setting, with a particular focus on helping people realize the obstacles and traps they themselves place on their path. I’ve listened to a number of podcasts with Jerry and it’s uncanny how he quickly isolates muscular tension.

From afar, I can understand how the crowd may think being an investor is easy and/or luxurious. And for some, it really is. But, it is also an outcomes-driven business, and it’s hard to know how you’re doing, it can be very competitive, and it is rapidly changing as new investment models and firm emerge. Brendan Baker recently tweeted about this and it is a good thread. As I have done here, I try to share my journey through creating Haystack and raising small funds. It’s really hard, but I love it. And while I’m perhaps more open about it than others, Jerry took his scalpel and made an incision right where some of the pain and doubt reside. It’s a bit painful for me to listen to this, but I hope it will be useful to me (and others) as it reacts with oxygen.

Thank you, Jerry, for the opportunity.

Here is the podcast conversation with Jerry. I’m usually quick to say what I’m thinking, but you’ll notice here I stutter a bunch and there are some long pauses. That’s all due to the fact that Jerry quickly cut to the heart of the matter and surfaced a topic that’s not so easy to have a conversation about.

At the end of the conversation, Jerry challenged me to write down four questions and write out answers to them. I thought about them this summer, and here are his questions and my brief answers.

1/ What kind of man do I want to be?
Beyond the basics of providing for and caring for my family, friends, and colleagues, I want to inspire others around me to have confidence in my dependability. I may not say things they want to hear, but I hope to be consistent. I want to focus on fewer things and pay them the attention they deserve. I want to age with grace while staying as close as I can to newer generations who come of age.

2/ What kind of father do I want to be?
I want to spend as much time with them as I can without the need or pressure to be doing something specific in each moment — just being around each other. I want to foster a home culture where our family takes trips together, looks forward to hanging out together, where family members help others without prompting. I want to be a father who lets my kids make the little mistakes they’ll eventually learn from, and to be a reliable, strong resource for them as they mature and encounter life’s greater challenges.

3/ What kind of leader do I want to be?
I haven’t really experienced being in a leadership position. If someone else does look to me for direction, on- or offline, I would hope that I could be someone who consistently does what he says he will do and isn’t afraid to change his mind when the facts change or are examined from a different perspective.

4/ What kind of investor do I want to be?
I want to attract and align with visionaries who can articulate a far-off future that stitches together complex themes, technologies, and movements. And when I find those people, I want to earn their trust and respect to help them in the ways that I believe I can. To find these people, I want to spend time with them, to read as much as I can, and write about my experiences along the way so I can continue to learn, to be challenged, and continuously shape and refine my ideas for the future.