"Think of yourself as a cockroach" or ergodicity is such a helpful rule of thumb to focus on. Hedge your bets, stay in the game and you win by default!
I've always disliked titles like "founder". There's something inherently vain and self-congratulatory about calling yourself that. Founder of what? Founder should be something other people call you after generations. "Cockroach" is much more honest and even more beautiful. Having the resilience to carve out and secure the life you want in even the direst circumstances, like a cockroach that can't be crushed. The "cockroaches" that scurried to the US generations ago (and still today) and found a way to take root and keep living are the real founders of the country.
Frankly, I don't quite have the maturity to call myself a cockroach yet. Still experimenting to find a life that fills me with joy and that I can sustain and protect.
Agree! And being a founder is not remarkable. I can found something in the next 30 minutes if I wanted to. Starting a business is easy; it's staying in business that's hard.
I think it was a Seth Godin recommendation for a book "Ignore Everybody" and one of its chapters was on this: you can have the unsexiest business approach in the world, and still manage to fend off competitors simply because you have more stamina.
One thing I have realized by being self-employed after long period of full time job that I could live cheaply without feeling bad or struggling a lot. It's liberating when I realized I don't need a lot of money to live (doesn't mean i don't need more money). I can live below my means.
What an inspiring read. Filled with nuggets of wisdom:
- Do you have enough runway?
- think about the idea of the Golden Mountain. You can take a narrow, treacherous path to the peak, or you can be happy that you’re on the mountain.
Sometimes we want so badly to be so great that we struggle to even be good.
Love your family story! Thank you for sharing 😊
"Think of yourself as a cockroach" or ergodicity is such a helpful rule of thumb to focus on. Hedge your bets, stay in the game and you win by default!
I've always disliked titles like "founder". There's something inherently vain and self-congratulatory about calling yourself that. Founder of what? Founder should be something other people call you after generations. "Cockroach" is much more honest and even more beautiful. Having the resilience to carve out and secure the life you want in even the direst circumstances, like a cockroach that can't be crushed. The "cockroaches" that scurried to the US generations ago (and still today) and found a way to take root and keep living are the real founders of the country.
Frankly, I don't quite have the maturity to call myself a cockroach yet. Still experimenting to find a life that fills me with joy and that I can sustain and protect.
Paul Graham has a great essay about keeping your identity small.
http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html
The way you see yourself has a huge impact on how you act and whether you feel successful.
looking forward to checking it out
Agree! And being a founder is not remarkable. I can found something in the next 30 minutes if I wanted to. Starting a business is easy; it's staying in business that's hard.
I think it was a Seth Godin recommendation for a book "Ignore Everybody" and one of its chapters was on this: you can have the unsexiest business approach in the world, and still manage to fend off competitors simply because you have more stamina.
One thing I have realized by being self-employed after long period of full time job that I could live cheaply without feeling bad or struggling a lot. It's liberating when I realized I don't need a lot of money to live (doesn't mean i don't need more money). I can live below my means.