Daydream Playbook Entry #12

"Celebrating the Epiphany" a selection (page XI) from Off-Centered Leadership: The Dogfish Head Guide to Motivation, Collaboration &  Smart Growth, in which Sam reflects back on Dogfish Head's momentous 20th anniversary and how this milestone altered the course ahead. 

Within a few weeks of my birthday, Dogfish Head celebrated a milestone as well: our 20th anniversary as the first brewpub in the first state. I figured if I were going to treat 46 as a halfway point in my personal life, it would also make sense (at least to me) to treat the 20th anniversary of the company I founded as the halfway mark of my role within this company. Thus, I reasoned, Dogfish Head would be the only company I would ever work for. Why? Because I love what I do and I love the people I have gotten to know as coworkers and beer lovers throughout the two decades of my entrepreneurial journey. But I also realized that to be the most beneficial to the company, my role at Dogfish Head over the next 20 years needed to be different than the type of work I did during the first 20 years. In a word, I needed to evolve. The work priorities and habits I had relied on in those first 20 years could not sustainably remain the same for the next 20.

To commemorate, capture, and internalize this epiphany, I got a tattoo.