risk > "hard work"
I am writing this at 11:00 pm on Dec 31.
I have an hour to reflect on this year and honestly I don't know where to begin.
At the beginning of the year I saw myself continuing the ladder of the leadership positions I held in various organizations but I reckon I disappointed myself by dropping all of them to go all in on startups.
A lot of people called me dumb, saying I had it in the bag, but honestly why slave away to something you hate?
These few months challenged my entire view; I never expected a business or startup to have ever occurred, let alone it working out. Then failing.
I hired a guy at UC Berkeley at 16, I got 250+ users, I interned at a YC company, I built so much.
I honestly fell in love with building. My excuse for never building stemmed from the ECs I did, saying "they gave me no time to build."
But honestly my ECs should be stuff I love, not being a corporate slave to say you're president.
The rant's not just going to be about startups though.
It's really about risk and just trying stuff out.
As cliche as it sounds, I realized most people are too afraid of starting, and I was a victim of this.
But the basic logic I came around to is: people think it's hard == less people wanting to do the "thing" == less competitive.
The effort of just trying stuff can have an insane ROI against losing nothing.
Besides forms of taking risk, this year also made me realize that I just want to do what I love.
Money serves no value to me as much as it used to. Doing something you love that generates happiness honestly beats a 911.
It's not dissing the 9-5, it's just I want life to be interesting knowing I took so many risks that my life becomes more lore-able.
Enough rant about startupy risk, here's what I want in 2026:
- Read at least 5 books (I said 12 last year but I am way far from that)
- Have physical activity at some capacity weekly, skipped too much
- Specialize in some technical field, feel too much of a generalist
- Get a 1500+ (kinda corny but I want to max my shot at getting a good college so I can build)
- Have a better social life and hang out more
If startups work out:
- 1k+ users
- Actual revenue
- Get flown out to some insane city, crazy goal but no shooting low
Let this year be our year.