Sriracha is the Spice of Life

Note: This article is the start of a series investigating how cross industry lessons can be directly applied to the IT and Information Security spaces.

I recently saw an article about the company behind Sriracha. If you’ve never tasted Sriracha sauce, proceed to your nearest supermarket, purchase a bottle, add to anything (no, seriously. ANYTHING), and then come back for the rest of this article. I’ll wait.

As a fellow lover of the Rooster you know just how amazing it is and according to the article that isn’t an accident. The company started as a single guy who wanted a fresh and delicious sauce. He stumbled into a million dollar company yet has refused to raise prices while insisting on only the freshest ingredients and peppers. Pause and think on that for a moment. The guy is hugely successful and any business grad could help him turn this success into massive riches by cutting costs and expanding operations (at the expense of quality.) He said no.

He could be even richer, but said no. That is a powerful lesson and describes the environment I want to work in.

Don’t be confused. I have a family and bills so money is important but it isn’t god. I want to work with a group of people where we can make enough money to be happy while focusing on doing wuality work that is personally and professionally satisfying. This ideal group doesn’t need to win every Fortune 10 bid, isn’t concerned with growing year over year, and doesn’t care about the elusive ‘massive deal.’ Rather they focus on winning security assessments for customers that actually want security not checkboxes. They focus on reading, writing, speaking, consulting (real consulting not just pie charts), and enjoying the job. Money is important but only as much as is needed to maintain the existing standard of living and pay the bills.

Ultimately I call this the Sriracha Principle: Identify the point where you have ‘enough’ money, obtain enough work to meet that threshold, and focus on doing satisfying and quality work.