Generosity

I was in Austin, TX last week doing some work with one of my favorite companies, Telestax (I am an advisor). Telestax is an open-source project in the telecom space, and arguably one of the most successful open source projects in the world today. Anyway, enough pitching!

If you’re ever around true open source people, there’s something different about them. As I wrote in a previous post, you can learn a lot from the most successful open source projects. One of the most endearing qualities of the Telestax team is that they are generous with their time, talent and treasure. I’ve yet to meet anyone on the team who doesn’t bend over backward to help another out.

I wrote a note to the CEO on my plane ride home:

Probably the thing I noticed most about Peter (and the key people you have at Telestax) is there is a spirit of generosity. I don’t know if it’s intentional or comes out of the open source background, but you, Jean, etc are very generous people. Peter drove me by a grocery store on the way to my room the other night after not having to come get me at all.

It’s refreshing to be around.