To a life-changing year ahead
Happy New Year Y’all
I’ve dreamed of this momentum since I left Snap 8 months ago.
And, it’s looking more and more plausible as we stand on Jan 1.
2025 is the year of the snake – well, technically Jan 29 is lunar new year – and I’m growing out of my old skin one day at a time. Exciting! But also scary.
Elements of skins shed ahead of 2025:
I wrote previously about incessantly needing to find true passion / meaning in what I do. I now believe that this entire theory may have been wrong. A few repeated visits to all parts of life where I felt truly alive were always doing some work with people who also worked their butts off, agnostic of topics / problems to solve. The illusion of mission may have been brought onto me by a sense of “shoulds” and ideology.
I gain no value from a business partner because as a technical person I can build, and as a relatively social person I can therefore also sell. True if time is infinite, not true for my taste of pace, results, and reality.
It is always best to deeply study something, to be in the cave for a while to make sure you either like the topic or can accomplish the goals set forth.
If I don’t have enough time to work, then the solution is always incrementally trade personal time for work time.
Components of the new year:
Do, do, do. Nothing beats trying to do the thing, not an expert opinion, not weeks of studying. Action provides information. Unless you have a actual justified reason to delay it, do it now if possible.
I have a cofounder and couldn’t be more excited. George is intense, complementary in skills with myself, and in many ways carry experiences that can prove to fast track my own learnings. We’ve made huge leaps in a short amount of time largely because of our shared drive.
Be comfortable with silence, socially or in a meeting. If the purpose isn’t storytelling, then say what I need to say directly and back off. Saves everybody time trying to “digest” my monologue.
Prepare to delegate. The fear of others not holding themselves to the same bar as myself is rational yet simultaneously restrictive. I have many many goals for the product we’re building and at some point I will need to step back, train a protege or bring in someone else, and focus on the larger picture.
Get enough reps of selling that it feels like walking. Despite my focus on craftsmanship with high horsepower, we need to sell effectively and repeatedly to have the glimpse of of hope to transform this little pony of a product into a unicorn.
In the spirit of the AI revolution, sharing my masterclass feedback from Mr. ChatGPT.
On a more personal level, some of the things I’m trying to bring into balance for 2025:
Eating healthier: found out I was pre-diabetic in December, so I’m moving towards a healthier diet with little to none processed food, sodium, and added sugar. No sodium for someone who douses their chipotle with a third of the tabasco bottle is ROUGH.
Bench 225 again after my lifting hiatus.
Share more active hobbies with Jenny.
Actually unplug outside of work. So far what seems effective is literally putting my phone into airplane mode.
Find pockets of time for social activities I enjoy: looking forward to organizing and hosting a few dinner parties, game nights, food tours, quick trips with old and new friends.
Sleep 7.5-8 hours a day.
Wishing everyone a happy new year ahead! Thanks for reading,
JZ
Jan 1, 2025
Congrats on finding a cofounder!! Looks like you’re locking in HARD