retickr has just returned from its first team retreat. Everyone has been going hard for a couple weeks now, and we decided that we needed to stop what we are doing and head to the cabin for a little R&R.
Brian hit the store grabbed brats, hotdogs, chips, beer, ammo. the works. We all packed up our things and loaded “too much dude” (aka 5 guys) into a Saturn Vue. 45 scary Haney driving minutes later we arrived, unloaded the car, and headed to the river.
The journey
Chattanooga, TN to Dalton, GA
One reason for picking the cabin was to be able to shoot some skeet, sit in the river, and being that its very rustic, get away from technology for the night. We had a gun safety meeting and hit the range. It was Adam and Josh’s first time shooting a shotgun and they both did very well. My boy “no miss Marlow” has the battle wounds to prove it.
Stud
100 rounds and a few shattered clay pigeons later we called it a day on the range and headed up for some dinner. Brats, hotdogs, and beans. A manly meal for sure. The rest of the night we spent sitting around the fire and talking about randomness. It was great to finally have conversations that weren’t related in any way to retickr. We ended the night with a few of us experiencing some ole fashion frog gigging. There weren’t many out, but we didn’t come up completely empty handed. Adam and Brian were able to land two frogs. We cleaned them up and had a late night frog leg snack, something new to Brian and Adam. I feel that everyone enjoyed the change of pace and ability to unplug for a night. A successful trip for sure.
As of late we have exceeded the honeymoon stage of our young company. We don’t always agree on everything. We are working long hours. We live together. We literally talk about retickr 16 hours a day. While all of these things are great and important for a startup, I believe it is crucial to put that startup mentality on hold ever once and a while and go somewhere to take a real break.
It is unhealthy for your company to run non-stop. I am glad that we made the choice to get away for the night, I think it really helped. I would urge other startups to do the same. Get out of the day-to-day routine and get to really know one another on a more personal level. The survival of your company depends on it.
