Is this an origin story? I don’t know. It is a story of how skipping my snooze button created a company and the need for a ‘kick-ass’ company name.
“P. S. VACK Limited?”
“PSVACK Limited.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
Rewind…
It’s the spring of 2021. I’m in bed wrapped up in my duvet, comfortable, warm, about to hit the snooze button for the 3rd time. My fiancée got up an hour-and-a-half earlier, but I was eking out as much time as possible until I absolutely had to get up, ruminating over the crappy day ahead, dreading it was going to be painful. And it usually was.
Work days were Groundhog Days1. It felt like living the same day over and over. Same place, same routine, same faces, same thoughts, same feelings, same frustrations, and the same problems made everything a little bit grey*. I didn’t enjoy my days and certainly wasn’t learning anything new, things I now realize are crucial to doing great work. I told myself tales of not being good enough to succeed elsewhere. Instead, I chose the easier option of staying wrapped up in my ‘career duvet’ repeatedly hitting the snooze button, and delayed going out into a world of new and exciting opportunities, experiences, and problems worth solving. Despite the frustrations, everything was so easy, familiar, and comfortable. I was comfortably numb2!
*It’s worth noting that I loved the people I worked with during this time. I’d known most of them for well over a decade and some of them are still good friends to this day. Also, the company in question is doing great things. It just wasn’t right place for me to do my best work and improve. Much love 🥰.
The Region Beta Paradox is a behavioural science concept that describes how people can sometimes be ‘better off’ in worse situations, for example, relationships and careers. It usually takes a significant event to force change, which initially feels uncomfortable and ‘worse’, but also serves as a catalyst for action resulting in a vastly improved situation. I’d been lucky enough to survive numerous redundancy rounds over my career but eventually started thinking “Why not me?”. Many unfortunate souls found themselves in much better situations after a relatively short period of time, and I was starting to feel envious. Until one day, fate intervened!
“I love a restructure”, said no one, ever. Except when it provides an opportunity you can grab with both hands. An opportunity to decline the alternative roles on offer and intentionally make yourself redundant. To create your own self-made significant event and choose to welcome forth discomfort. That’s exactly what I did. As Derren Brown’s states in A Book of Secrets3, “To remember who we are in relation to the world and enrich our relationship with it, we need to be more happily unsettled”. There’s a lot to be said for being uncomfortable and learning to enjoy it.
“Do something every day that scares you”
from Wear Sunscreen by Mary Schmich
Speaking of discomfort, there was a bit of that at home, along with a large helping of confusion. It was a Tuesday night and I stood in the kitchen grinning from ear to ear informing my fiancée I was quitting my job, demanding a takeout and bottle of wine to celebrate! Eyebrows were raised, as too were anxiety levels. My attempts to improve the situation by explaining that, biologically, stress and anxiety are identical to excitement, failed miserably. But the deed had been done. I was excited. No more snoozing. I forced myself to get out of bed by setting it on fire!
Fast forward 3 months and I’d taken a couple of months’ career break and done loads of cool stuff. I read numerous books including The Monk and the Riddle 4 which, amongst other things, highlights the pitfalls of living a ‘Deferred Life Plan’. This was a plan I’d been following for a while so my decision now seemed validated. It was clear I was doing the right thing. I’d also started tickling the jobs market and was at the 6th (yes, 6th!) and final stages for 2 senior Product roles. I was extremely excited about both, but then out of the blue came a interesting contract gig. Doing ‘my own thing’ was currently on the deferred life plan and taking a contract gig felt scary. I’d invested a lot into the two permanent roles heading my way. Would it all be for nothing? Meh, let’s go for it! I was on a roll of discomfort!
1 phone call, 36 hours later, and just days before putting the finishing touches to a nice, shiny, new perm job on a lovely, big salary; I have an accountant, a signed contract, a limited company, and was informing prospective employers that ‘my availability had changed’. Again, some anxiety levels spiked at home. I’m sorry, my Love!
When someone asks me for my company name and I say “PSVACK Limited” it always gets a reaction. It certainly starts a conversation so I guess it’s doing a job. I love the name, not because it’s a meaningful acronym, because of the way it rolls off the tongue (it doesn’t), how clever it is, or because it has some profound underlying meaning. I love my company name because of the faces people pull when they hear it for the first time. A face reminiscent of fans seeing Harry Kane start England games in the 2024 Euros, the face pulled by everyone at the end of a Christopher Nolen film, or my face when trying to understand why videos of people inserting bin bags into bins go viral (apparently the common sense approach of expelling air is a revolutionary ‘life hack’)! I love that almost everyone mispronounces it. I love that almost everyone asks me what it means. I love the fact that most people laugh and take the piss out of it… and I’m fine with that. #bants
Warning: I’ve been told the following part of this story is boring (how rude!)
“Do you struggle to get people to listen to what you’re saying?”
Random meet-up attendee
The most stressful part of accepting my first contract gig, apart from convincing my fiancée everything would be fine, was the constant pestering for a company name. Apparently this is important. ‘PM Consulting Ltd’ seemed a bit too easy (although I did like that my initials also initialised Product Management) so I went into overthinking mode. I needed to think this through properly and get it right, first time. A company name that was timeless, no matter what I did. I needed it to be profound and terribly clever, conveying everything about something that didn’t exist yet in an extraordinary way.
“You’re an f**king idiot!”, is what I would say to me, if I was explaining the above to myself ! Being (self-)coached by my ‘imaginary coach’ is something I’m practicing (please don’t tell my actual coach). We never really listen to the extremely wise, common-sense voices in our heads; the answers to life’s problems buried deep in our minds. What would I say to someone who was doing what I was doing? How could I help them? What advice would I give? I asked myself none of these questions, instead opting to get the whiteboard out (the Whiteboard Warrior returns!). “Product Pauly Ltd” was a little too unprofessional. I needed more options.
A quick brainstorming, Johari Window-type exercise followed by an Affinity Mapping-esque session and I had something. Words that I felt some connection to. Words that seemed to start with the same letter. Jumble these around a few times, create an acronym, bang the word ‘Limited’ on the end, and we’re good to go!
Today, I’d probably have a few additions to the words above: ‘Passion’ and ‘Philosophy’, ‘Smile’ and ‘Stoic’, ‘Acceptance’, ‘Common Sense’, ‘Kindness’
(For people who ask me what PSVACK means, now you know!)
So, job done? Not quite. Ladies and Gentlemen, I’d like to introduce you to Fear & Resistance, topics covered heavily in The War of Art5.
“What will people think?”
“Does it make sense?”
“What if I need to change it in future?”
“Does it ‘work‘?”
“Will people remember it?”
“It’s not cool enough”
And on and on…
And round and round…
In the end, I settled on the one question that mattered, “Will anyone care?” and decided they wouldn’t. The stories in my head were probably wrong, and the questions I was asking myself, irrelevant. It would all be fine in the end and the name would never really be as meaningful as the actions taken and the core values and principles followed. And actually, the smile count is high when all is said and done. Positive human outcomes are what I’m shooting for… so all-in-all #winning.
“That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.”
William Shakespeare
I have zero idea if the PSVACK name will survive the test of time, and don’t really care. For now, it’s a conversation starter and allows me to fill in ‘Company Name’ on forms and expo badges. It also has a slightly Eastern European twang when pronounced correctly* (it’s S-VAC with a silent P, not P-S-VACK), a tip of the cap towards one half of my ancestry.
*Annoyingly pronouncing PSVACK correctly usually results in spelling it out when it needs to be written down, so I’m now intentionally mispronouncing it! A great example of where seeing something in the wild is the best way to understand it’s effectiveness – irony pie to the face of this ‘Agile Product guy’!
These days, I don’t snooze my alarm. I’m up and about, finding comfort in being uncomfortable and unsettled, trying new things and enjoying not knowing what the hell is going on most of the time, but figuring it out day-by-day. Good stress (eustress) and pressure create diamonds after all, and real experts know there is always more to learn.
- Discover: Groundhog Day ↩︎
- Discover: Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd ↩︎
- Discover: A Book of Secrets by Derren Brown ↩︎
- Discover: The Monk and the Riddle by Randy Kosimar ↩︎
- Discover: The War of Art by Steven Pressfield ↩︎
PSVACK Limited 