What's In Front Of You

Like many people, I have often struggled with keeping the main thing, well, the main thing.

I discovered startups during my first job out of college. I would spend hours sitting in conference rooms, reading about Silicon Valley, fundraising, legendary stories of product pivots and near-death experiences.

And I wasn't alone. Around this time, a certain type of content format was becoming popular. Very popular. Fueled by a glut of media, I dove in. I was absorbing as much as I could. That is, as much as I could without doing the thing.

I was still working my 9-5. Except, it wasn't just my 9-5. Because I felt such a large disconnect between what I wanted to be doing (startups! hacking!) and what I was doing (consulting, product management), I would get off work and just... work more.

I would work late on ideas. A lot of ideas. Most of them never left the drawing board. I had a problem with taking the Next Step. The big one. The one where your parents ask you if you're sure and your friends start wondering if you're okay. The walk-away-from-a-good-salary-with-nice-benefits-and-looks-good-on-a-resume one.

And, eventually, those extra hours started to take a toll. It felt frustrating, knowing I was climbing the wrong ladder, but not having enough time to see meaningful progress on my other ventures. I was still underestimating just how much time it would take to make something that was both original and worth doing.

The thing that finally forced me out of my rut and into uncharted territory was COVID. It dislocated the world enough that a lane opened. Lots of people, myself included, fell through the cracks.

In many ways, it feels like the 21st century just started a few years ago. The future isn't going to look like the past, and for a brief moment in time, there's an opportunity to shape it.

And while that opportunity is in front of me, I'm not going to let it go.