By this time last year, I was a Portuguese 9 to 5 wagie working in a cubicle 9 hours a day for €650 a month
These days I make +10x that on the Internet
There have been ups and downs
Wins and losses
THREAD - 10 lessons I learned the hard way over the past year
On entrepreneurship, relationships and personal transformation:
By this time last year, I was a Portuguese 9 to 5 wagie working in a cubicle 9 hours a day for €650 a month
These days I make +10x that on the Internet
There have been ups and downs
Wins and losses
I’ll now share these with you in hopes you can make some practical use out of them
Enjoy
The first lesson that I learned on this journey that ironically made everything else easier
Look
Any fulfilling, meaningful venture you pursue will be intense
It’s supposed to be
It’s intense for everyone
You’re not special
Nobody is
“Hard” or “intense” is what makes gives life to life
“Hard” is necessary for you to push through your own barriers and evolve as a human
We live in a world where everything is romanticized
You’re told since you’re a kid
“Oh you’re special, you’ll do great things”
You’re not
Nothing is
Nobody is
It’s us, the individual who makes things special
This applies to everything
Relationships, partnerships, opportunities, ventures etc
Sure there are good fits and bad fits
Just like everything in life
In the end, it’s you, the individual, who builds something to be special
Not saying that “hard work” isn’t important
But much more important is
Being at the right place
Building up the right set of skills
Connecting with the right set of people
Pulling the right lever
Think in leverage
Again, this applies to anything
We live in the Google era
We have a doubt we ask Google
Or someone
Not a problem when it comes to small things
But huge issue when it comes to big boy decisions
We become addicted to asking
We have the need to feel “ready”
We have to actively engage in the task ahead
It’s the only way to achieve competence in anything
On the same note
School conditions us to study lessons to prepare for the test
In real life, it works the other way around
You’ll only get the lesson after you go through the test
This is the only way you acquire wisdom
Growth lies on the other side
All of my life up until last year I struggled
Always had to prove somebody wrong
Always me vs. the world
Got used to live that way
The struggle is what fueled my ambitions
But once I stopped struggling… There was no drive anymore
So I would subconsciously try to self-sabotage to put myself in that place again
Only recently I’ve realized this
But in order to truly evolve
You have to let go of the life you used to have
Nothing more potent than negative emotions to achieve massive breakthroughs
I felt a lot of negative emotions last year
It was the most relentless I’ve ever been
Some sort of lesson in there
I’m always playing catch-up
It’s the downside of being young and ambitious
The journey never stops
There’s always a step above
Always something more to do
It’s not the prize that’s rewarding
It never was
