What Utah’s Pioneer Day Can Teach Every Creator
Before There Were Startups, There Were Pioneers
This week I realized that one of our recruiting clients was on company holiday this Thursday July 24th and I also had to get coffee shipped a bit earlier to avoid any delays because of a state holiday in Utah.
Every July 24th here in Utah, we celebrate a state holiday that most people outside of Utah have never heard of, Pioneer Day. I personally don’t do much on pioneer day. Some people celebrate the day as “pie and beer day”. Pie and beer do not go well together for me but enjoy yourself if this is your thing.
To locals, it’s parades, fireworks, rodeos, and BBQs. But underneath the surface, it marks something way deeper:
The day a bunch of religious refugees showed up to a barren, dry valley in 1847 and said, “Let’s build something here.” There have been a lot of stories told on how it actually went down but to me they are just stories with no witnesses alive today to fact check.
One thing that is certain is that traveling from Missouri to Utah in 1847 on horse and buggy would be damn hard. No outside funding. No roadmap. Some extra wives and a vision, some tools, and a whole lot of grit.
Rumor has it that they were not fully enforcing the no alcohol or coffee rule at this point but let’s not go down that rabbit hole. One thing I will always standby is you shouldn’t ever outlaw coffee. Yes, I am biased but had to share that.
The struggles the Mormon pioneers went through sounds a lot like being a creator today.
They didn’t find fertile land, they made it. They mapped streets (wide streets), built homes, started businesses, and raised families. And they did it because they believed in what they were building.
That’s the mindset every creator needs.
That’s the essence of Pioneer Day.
What Pioneer Day Means to Creators
You don’t need ideal conditions to start. You just need to start.
Building in public takes guts. They built with the world watching (and doubting). Sound familiar?
Your valley is coming. But only if you keep showing up, planting, building, iterating.
My challenge to you:
What’s your desert moment? That time you kept building when no one else saw the vision. In recruiting too often we are given a dry pipeline and bizarre hiring manager that we have to find people to hire.
Hit reply. I’d love to hear it.
And wherever you are this July 24th, raise a glass (or a cup of Sumato Coffee 😉) to the pioneers, past and present, who choose to build something meaningful, no matter how dry the ground looks at first.
Stay gritty,