There’s a moment when someone crosses over from someone-you-know to a friend. It’s a palpable difference. Friends provide a new perspective — a new dimension — that an acquaintance isn’t inclined to do. And, for me at least, it takes a tremendous amount of time and energy to maintain a network. I’m a lot happier with a handful of good friends than hundreds of contacts in my address book.
College isn’t worth the investment. But it’s the best investment you could make.
No amount of classes are worth $60,000 a year. Especially not when that same knowledge is available for free, or for a relatively small amount of money from the textbooks themselves. And most people aren’t even using that knowledge in real life.
As I was finishing high school, I didn’t give a fuck about college. I applied to too many schools across the board, and thought I could make better use of my time and the money on my own.
But slowly, I’m discovering everything beyond classes, and finding myself in improbable situations. And I’ve come to realize that college is a massive filter for some of the best people and opportunities to all come together. The majority of my growth and development — becoming a better student, startup founder and human being — have come from circumstantial interactions and simply being around a diverse group of people, people with a shared passion but a vast range of personal backgrounds and aspirations.
No amount of work done feels as good as a good night’s sleep.
Seriously. All-nighters aren’t worth it. That homework assignment — fuck, even that final project — won’t really matter. But a sleep schedule is a habit, and that affects my health, mood, and productivity. I won’t let a problem set mess up my tomorrow.
I spend a lot of time thinking about how to improve my productivity. Mental exercises, digital tools (the Do Not Disturb toggle is fantastic), ergonomics, and work environment all factor in. But every night, there comes a point where I realize I’m not doing my best work anymore, and I simply stop. I go to bed. And if I need to, I resume whatever I was working on in the morning, when I’m thinking clearly and can focus on the task.
Do whatever it takes to increase accountability.
I look around in my journal, my Dropbox, my Github, and find the carcasses of dead projects. Projects that I thought were great when I started them, and sunk time into them, and abandoned them when other priorities came about, sweeping them into the unknown corners of my mind for “some other time”.
It’s easy to forget things when it’s just you. Just tell yourself that you’ll come back to it “some other time”, and you’ll believe it. And “some other time” will always end up being “another” time.
Ultimately, you aren’t afraid of failing because you let yourself down — you’re letting down the people you worked with, the people who supported you, and you face public embarrassment. And the fear of that keeps you going.
I now put myself through that for almost every project I do. For the things I care about — for the things I want to do, I let people know. I talk about these projects, post about them, because it holds me accountable. The people around me, the people who know about what I’m working on, serve as guard rails. Their expectations maintain a pressure to succeed, to deliver, from all directions. But these guard rails are brittle, and below them are thorns.
It was easy to let go of my first startup venture. It wasn’t a venture, just an idea between two friends. When we left for college, we suddenly had more immediate concerns. And just like that, we gave up months of research, planning, and connections. Because we weren’t accountable.
Pick something big to aspire to. It’d be nice if I was a billionaire in a decade. Break it down. Did I spend my day doing something worth a quarter of a million? Did I get $40,000 worth of work done this morning?
I don’t take this metric literally. It would be ridiculous and miserly. But if I find myself answering “no” after too many days, it’s a indication that I could be doing more with my life.
Time is the only thing we can’t have enough of. Value it.
I don’t spend my time trying to scry the future, trying to get in on the “next big thing”. Doing great things requires sustained effort. The kindling for that effort comes from an innate drive, a mission, towards a great cause.
With my startups, I’m fighting to empower people to do great things by eliminating friction from everyday life. What will you fight for?
I’m in a long-term relationship with myself. We all are. And relationships take time, and effort. The most important thing I’ve come to realize this year is that I need to take time to focus on me. That I’m not chained to my inbox, that not all of my time belongs to other organizations and other people, that my health is my own to build up or wear down.
You are the most important person in your life. And uncomfortable as it might be to think that, it’s the truth. Get to know yourself. Make yourself happy.
I started the year with these lines in my journal. I think it’s only fitting to close it out with the same:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
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