As I dive deeper into bringing this sustainable guesthouse hotel brand to life, I keep noticing something so often, in such an obvious way -
Like a song that plays on the radio over and over again, or when you notice that everyone is somehow wearing the same color -
It feels like I can’t even point it out for how obvious it is, but I’d like to for you right now -
People who run amazing hotels, social clubs, coworking spaces, bars, restaurants - are all absolutely exceptional, you know I would even say phenomenal - at working together in groups.
I consider myself someone who has lived quite a lot, and I have never seen teamwork like this before this summer.
A request or challenge comes in and it’s a soft flurry - a ballet of everyone coming to the table and using their best talents to, together, pick it apart and solve it.
Being a part of these groups lately, around them and in them so often, has given me so much hope. At times it’s moved me beyond words.
I’m convinced that it’s how we need to approach almost everything.
And for some reason that can only be answered by a forensic anthropologist, the messaging that we have all been swimming in for so long has been to tackle things alone, or in partnerships, or in very small nuclear units.
And I get why people isolate at first. Why they harden, crystallize in a way, and go at it all alone.
You’ve seen people do this right? Sometimes for decades. Sometimes forever.
They may have never seen examples of exceptional groups at work, or maybe they don’t believe in them for one reason or another, so they glitch into “alone.”
I really get it.
There’s a lot that I’ve been through these days personally and professionally that has made me truly question my faith and trust in people.
I mean that in general, the all-encompassing-blanket-statement-style
“people.”
Lately, I, Jenna, almost lost my faith and trust in people.
And in picking it apart, it’s so apparent that the first thing to do, not the last, is to throw your challenge, what’s hurting you, to a group.
Here is a knot that I’m having such trouble untangling. It’s a new knot that I’ve uncovered, it feels never ending, at times dark and twisted, at others I want to flat out give up - to never untie knots again, you know I never deserved this knot ever, I didn’t ask for this to happen, I didn’t want someone to give this to me, it’s awful and the treads are cutting, how on earth could someone or a group of people ever be so messed up to tie a knot that is truly this horrible, it’s so tight, it’s so tough, f&*# this knot, I can’t do this alone, and I need your help.
And watching, not just one person but a whole group of people, approach the knot, pluck at it, and untie it together, is a specific kind of grace that is truly breathtaking to behold.
All those analogies about “leaping and the net appearing” to me are incomplete.
The net doesn’t just appear, it’s made with all of those threads from all those knots that you had to deal with, that were untied by you and people you love. They all then used those threads to help you weave your net, and make it bigger and bigger, so that it can even catch more people than just you.
And I’ve been swinging in my beautiful net these days like a hammock.
And I’m not ever alone in untying the tangled knots that come my way.
Thank you, so much, for that.
This all. isn’t ever. supposed to ever. be experienced alone.
Please don’t go hard,
Don’t be one of those frozen-in-time people.
Tap out and call in your group to help you untie the knots,
Swing in a hammock instead,
And make some room for your chosen and true friends and family to swing with you.
And when they tell you that it’s all going to be all right,
While you slowly sway together under the warm sun,
Believe them.
Love,
Jenna
P.S.
Jenna’s Board in on holiday until September. If you’d like to meet with the board to help untangle your knots, please reply and we can schedule you for September. Can’t wait.
If you know anyone who runs an exceptional hotel, social club, coworking space, bar, and/or restaurant I’d love to meet them to share the guesthouse concept and get their take, please reply and let me know, muchísimas gracias.