Being around Inspiring People

I’m so lucky now that I’m able to meet a lot of inspiring people, many of them founders in some sense of the word. If they’re not now, they will be within a few years.

This wasn’t true a year ago. Twitter really opened up an entire world to me, that I had been missing my whole life without knowing it was there.

I’m lucky enough now to have friends doing incredibly interesting work. The scene I’m in fits me, when I get funding it’s going to be through connections made on X.

The question is - why?

I have a natural cloud chasing instinct, everyone does. But I don’t know if that’s really why I enjoy hanging out with people like that.

It’s more that I enjoy living vicariously through them. I want to be them, and by being around them I’m unconciously hoping their way of seeing the world will rub off on me.

I’m not sure how true that it is - there’s a large aspect of “Just do it” to the work that lies ahead of me.

Then why haven’t I done it? The desire for freedom and autonomy is there. For a while I questioned - am I kidding? Is this what I really want?

But it is. I was raised in Massachusetts, the Puritan work ethic and the western Faustian spirit are in my bones. It’s who I am.

So what’s holding me back?

Lack of Courage

I still have self-doubt, this voice in my mind “Can I really do this?”.

This is improving by the month, thankfully - talk to enough founders in SF and you realize there really isn’t any special sauce. They’re just normal people who quit their jobs.

My day job

Currently between commuting and working I’m spending ~10-11 hours a day “working”. Probably 2-3 hours of that is commuting, which I’ll get back when we move back to Massachusetts and I return remote.

This sucks, and is a huge amount of both my time and mental focus. I’m going to build side projects for a while, but I am going to need to quit my job to fully have time for building a company.

Living in SF

I’m in SF for 4 months. It’s impossible to go monk mode and build side projects when there’s such a vibrant community here.

That’s ok though! I’m here for a reason, and a limited time. It’s good to be social, I’m learning a lot. That’s why I’m quitting my job next year - to allow myself to enjoy my time here, and enjoy my wedding.

Lack of Physical Energy

For a while now I’ve been dealing with some kind of chronic fatigue. Through hard work in the medical system this year I got a Lyme’s Disease diagnosis, and am seeing positive signs treating it with antibiotics.

Lack of Focused Attention

I still waste too much time scrolling Instagram and X. There’s definetly still a missing mental piece, where I haven’t unified my focus. I need to make starting a company the air I breathe. It doesn’t need to be today, but it does need to be next year.

I need to get comfortable spending 30m hacking on a side project. I need to do it in a way that’s fun.

The best antidote to all of these is the same - keep writing here, keep focusing my intention, keep commiting mentally to the path I have ahead. Build some side projects, expand my social circles. Be on the lookout for my co-founder.