Sunday Sharies 11.20.22

A QUOTE

"If you don’t look back at yourself and think, 'Wow, how stupid I was a year ago,' then you must not have learned much in the last year."
― Ray Dalio, Founder of Bridgewater Associates

A QUESTION

What are you willing to do that others are not?

A THOUGHT

“Alright, well, bye forever!”

I exit the Zoom on my company Mac. I blink a few too many times at my reflection on the blank desktop. How anticlimactic, I think to myself. I sign off the VPN and shut down the laptop for the last time. No more paychecks, no more health insurance, no more sure thing.

In the six weeks since leaving my corporate job, I’ve been building my first company.

And damn does it make you creative!

My first big Aha: When someone else pays your salary, you work on what you're paid to work on. When you remove that carrot, the choice between survival and change comes into focus. You can stick to what you know or reinvent yourself. You can try on some whacky new hats and see if one fits. You don't actually know what your future self wants until you’re in complete control of what your future self gets.

Starting from scratch reignites the imagination in us.

You have to become a more prolific producer and a ruthless editor. You need feedback from the market and you need intuition about when to use it. It's messy. Which is what makes it so rewarding when little things begin to work.

I'm reminded of something BJ Fogg wrote in his book Tiny Habits:

What you WANT to do and what you CAN do will converge into what you most likely WILL do.

And that’s the most fertile ground for building something you believe in.