2020, you made us stronger

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.. - Dan Millman

I am sitting in my kitchen, a coffee in hand, a piano melody wrapping around me and cradling my emotions, trying to find the right words to talk to you about 2020. This huge wave of emotion washes over me, because I know that if I dive too deeply into this look back, the tears will flow (or perhaps it is the piano's melancholy that is moving me).

Like everyone else, 2020 was an emotional year for us. Was it because of the pandemic? Perhaps in part. But Braver had more to do with it.

I am sitting in my kitchen, having just written a few lines that say everything without saying anything, and the word burning at my fingertips (a new expression), the one I am silently mouthing, is sacrifice. The year 2020 was a year of sacrifice for us.

We sacrificed time that will never come back. We sacrificed hours of sleep that we managed to catch up on. We sacrificed peace of mind, which remains a very relative concept. We sacrificed a salary, which is a slightly less relative concept. We sacrificed precious moments with family and friends. We sacrificed vacations (but life works out, considering that 2020 was hardly the decade's best year for vacations).

But even more striking than our own sacrifices are the ones others made for Braver. In 2020, it was not just Mathieu and me making sacrifices; there were all those people who wanted Braver to exist as fiercely as we did and who committed their time, money and energy. At some point, they too decided that this sacrifice was worthwhile.

Making this sacrifice for your own company is a bit like making it for your own children, I imagine. It is difficult, but so rewarding. It is exhausting, but you could not do otherwise. It is heart-wrenching, but it is what your heart wants. In short, this emotional bond makes the sacrifice a little gentler for us.

But seeing other people sacrifice for your company is striking. It can even make you a little dizzy. It is a mix of pride and fear that drives you to act differently. Suddenly, you no longer want to care only for your company, but also for your employees, investors, partners and future clients. Suddenly, you are at the helm of a much larger boat, learning to steer through storms while never wanting to lose anyone overboard.

But beyond the sacrifices, 2020 also brought immense joys: delivering the first version of our app, receiving invaluable support from the federal government and the City of Québec, closing a financing round with a dream lineup of investors, receiving a precious work of art bringing our logo to life, building a promising project with wonderful partners, and forging even stronger bonds with remarkable people.

However, we could not be fully transparent without telling you that in 2020, we also ran headfirst into walls. Sometimes we cried, sometimes we swore, and sometimes we fell asleep late while absorbing the blow. Sometimes we woke up very early to find the best way around the next wall we could see in the distance. But thankfully, we also often celebrated after breaking through a few that had seemed insurmountable at certain moments. And at those times, we looked at each other and said, our eyes full of pride, that we had done it.

We did it. And I try to keep telling myself this so it really sinks in, because being an entrepreneur means celebrating victory for 5 minutes after spending 10 months anxiously waiting for it to happen. And by that definition, when we celebrate a victory, there is a good chance we are already anticipating the next wall.

We did it, and that makes me emotional. I wish I could name every one of those small victories. I wish I could name every one of those walls, but that is not possible for now.

But we did it. We made it through the challenges that awaited us in 2020.

Because bringing about change inevitably means breaking through walls.

And breaking through walls ruffles feathers.

But I promise you we are going to make it, because our healthcare system needs Braver.

2021 will be a big year for this big project.

2021 will probably be full of major challenges and walls again, but it will also be full of small and large victories that take us further.

And if 2020 reminded us of one thing, it is that we control nothing in life apart from our attitude, our perception and our reactions to adversity. So in 2021, let's keep accepting, letting go and adapting to what life offers us. While still keeping the courage to change what can be changed!

Thank you all for your support and your presence!

Health, kindness and compassion toward yourselves, toward others and toward your community!