Nobody tells you that
Nobody tells you that you quickly become forgotten and irrelevant once you stop working at the place that helped make you who you are, when you decide to go out on your own. What I mean by that is that you might be hot shit and feel like you’re on top of the world, which gives you a sense of I can do this but better on my own. Well, you get humbled real fast when you go out on your own and you have to build something from scratch.
Consistency compounds, but you have to be all in and show up every day.
The thing I would tell 25-year-old me
The thing I would tell 25-year-old me is you wouldn’t be where you’re at today without the failures and losses you’re about to take over the next several years. I honestly wouldn’t change a thing, besides being more selective on who I trust and decide to go into business with. I learned that you have to lay it all out before you jump all in. The planning and details related to roles and responsibilities, pay and equity, etc. are extremely important when starting a new business, and I’ve learned the hard way a couple times.
I am done pretending that
I am done pretending that there’s a quick way to make money. If it’s easy, it’s probably too good to be true. Building something big takes work and consistency, and that consistency compounds, but you have to be all in and show up every day. It took me 5 years before I finally started to be able to afford and hire the right people who could take things off my plate and make my life easier as a CEO. But then you have a whole other set of challenges and problems: retaining the right people, finding the right people that believe in your vision, the list goes on.
Founder + CEO