It is wicked hard to grow potatoes on Mars, but it’s possible. Mark Watney (Matt Damon in The Martian film) had all the motivation he needed; his survival depended on it. As improbable as cultivating a potato farm on Mars may be, Mark achieved his goal because he brought his A-game. Day after day, month after month, even when he suffered setbacks, including losing his entire crop. Catastrophic mistakes didn’t stop his attempts; instead, after each loss, he got up and started over (and over and over) until he had a breakthrough.

Growing potatoes on Mars sounds more ridiculous than upgrading businesses from paper-based income verification, but I promise you that moving away from ingrained habits is incredibly hard. What makes it possible is bringing our A-game every day.

Your A-game is not a switch that can be turned on or off. It is not achieved by solving a mathematical equation or breaking the code. It’s not trackable in Looker or in a spreadsheet. Those are outputs; your A-game is your input. It’s getting a good night of sleep, staying intellectually curious, going the extra mile for a client and colleague, or staying up late until the code has been patched and is back in production. There is no formula other than hard work to build up your A-game. Similar to how one feels when they find love or joy, you will know your A-game when you find it.

The worst feeling for anyone growing potatoes on Mars is having their own team members eat those potatoes without bringing their A-game to the farm every day. On a small farm, it’s easy to spot those people. As our operation scales it’s critical to ensure that everyone on the farm is bringing their A-game to growing our business every day.

A-gamers are not umpires. They are not outside arbitrators enforcing regulations on the rest of us. They’re simply dedicated to maintaining a culture where everyone contributes to the best of their ability, stays engaged, and catalyzes us forward.

Here’s to changing our universe,