One side effect of doing my own thing with this startup is how all-consuming it becomes. Or at least, that’s the story I kept telling myself.
In strange ways, I’ve kind of achieved what I wanted - bootstrapped 100%, doing meaningful work on my own terms, earning enough from the internet to replace what a “regular job” would pay.
But other things I wanted in my personal life have sort of withered around me.
Most of my memories from the last two years seem to be just… this sense of chasing something.
And also somewhere along the way I started confusing a lot of motion with actual progress.
My therapist kept telling me I’d feel this eventually over last few months. I nodded. Never really took it seriously.
Nothing serious has happened. I’m going to keep building the company. It’s doing well.
But I’ve resolved to be a little more deliberate this year.
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Do more Adi’ish things across everything. And not just keep moving for the sake of moving (I kind of worked through why I do this - too personal to share here).
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The best work I’ve done in my career has come when I was having fun building - playing and exploring authentically. Like Naval says, “when you’re having fun, you’re hard to compete with.” I want to pursue and hone a little more of my own craft. So more emphasis on “fun” and less on revenue.
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Also - if AGI does come anyway, I’d rather build things that I actually want to see in the world instead of just watching my bank balance go up. What’s the point of just money in post-agi world?
Not sure why I’m putting this out.
But if there’s something nagging at you in your builder journey, maybe don’t wait like I did. I wish I’d done this reflection four or five months earlier. Nothing dramatic - just had to work through it with my therapist to get some clarity on what this year looks like.
Feeling a bit lighter now. I think it’s going to be a fun year.