Patrick Collison shared in an interview that the folks at Stripe have a saying: they really, really, really care. They don’t just care, nor simply really care. They care, presumably, to an abnormal degree.
I think that when you look at what they put out into the world at Stripe it’s pretty clear that that’s true. I’m not just talking about the main thing that they build, either—one of my favorites is Stripe Press.
I could probably write a whole essay about Stripe, about Stripe Press, and about the many other things that the Collison’s have helped to create or inspire, but I’ll save that for now—this is about caring.
The reason that the phrase struck a chord with me is that I really, really, really tend to put a lot of care into my work, too. In some scenarios likely to a fault, but it’s difficult to turn off, even if I wanted to.
Lots of folks talk about finding your passion, and Cal Newport wrote about the reverse: getting good at something such that it becomes your passion. The common element for me, though, is simply to care.
It turns out that deciding to care is pretty much the secret to feeling some sort of pride about my work. Even when there are situations outside of my control, I decide to care—then I at least have that.
It’s not philanthropic—I simply want to live in a more beautiful world and want for things to work as well as they can. I haven’t written about this yet, but I simply want to experience Pirsig-esque “Quality”.
Over the past few months, I’ve decided to really, really, really care about more than ever: morning pages, writing, art, mental health. It turns out that you can fit a lot of Quality into your life. More than I thought.
For some goofy reason, starting to tell myself that I “really, really, really” care has created a little feeling inside of me. Makes me push a little further. Try a little harder. I recommend really, really… (ah, you get it).