Business Vikings. Expand and Conquer.

We don’t stop when we are tired. We stop when we are done.

I recently binge-watched all four seasons of Vikings on the History channel over the course of a week. I stayed up until 3am every night to do it. My husband watched me become increasingly obsessed to the point where I was pretending to be characters in full accent when I would respond to him…. “Yes, my Lord”.

“Ok…You seriously need to take a break from that show”, he would tell me.

All that said, I’m not really a TV person. He will come home late at night and find me working in front of the TV with Mickey Mouse still playing from the kids watching it three hours earlier. I tend to ignore TV altogether when I get into my “work mode”…..though my husband watched my growing obsession and rare avoidance of work and eventually said “I think you like this show so much because it reminds you of the way you grow businesses”. Yes, that’s it!

...It is definitely not because Ragnar is easy on the eyes….I mean, seriously…

….His brother isn’t that bad either…

Truthfully, the story line that I love the most and looked forward to watching was actually that of Lagertha. She is a serious Badass Bitch with her team of equally awesome female warriors.

My husband was right. Drama and muscles (and piercing blue eyes) aside, there was something compelling about watching the Vikings overthrow governments and push aside non-progressive communities in a quest to expand their empire. The plotting and pillaging was entertaining but every episode left me with the lingering question of “Why?”. Ultimately, the Vikings were kind of the bad guys, right? They were just going around burning bridges for….well, I don’t really know the reason. I watched all four seasons waiting without an explanation for the deep rooted philosophical understanding of their need to conquer.

Well, that’s not true. Their answer was: “Because we are Vikings”.

Right now in Sample Supports we are throwing around the idea of expansion… Where? How? When?
I have been sitting a lot with the ultimate question of WHY? I mean, we don’t HAVE to expand and conquer. We have a nice comfortable lifestyle without the quest of conquering. I have a safe little office space and positive cash flow. Why would I want to shake that up? Why would I want to take the risk? Why do I want the extra pressure? Why would I want to add more work? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

For Fun? Because We Can? YES to all of that.

I love a good, fun challenge — it is just the way I’m built. My team likes the challenge too…. that is why we all make such a good team. We all like the question of “What’s Next?”

I enjoy experiencing the politics in new regions. I like to engage in the drama that moves a process forward. I like to build relationships and foster connections to develop something new. I like to watch an idea become reality. I like the reward of riches. More than the riches though — I love to create and I love to compete and I love to win. It is fun to struggle and to fail and to work on it and to ultimately figure it out.

I want to expand and conquer for the challenge of it…and ultimately, for the fun of it.

Since the closest I’ll get to a good old fashioned hand combat war is business, I’ll try to do it to the best of my core Viking ability. I’ll definitely do it without the murder and the victimization of women... We aren’t the “bad guys” afterall. I promise that the nastiest I will get is maybe a harsh email every now and then if somebody tries to usurp me. I can’t say the same for Lagertha, who spoiler alert stabbed her future husband on their wedding day when she learned of his secret revolt….