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Howdy from Durham,
Welcome to the 6 new subscribers from this past week!
I've officially moved on from my 9-5.
Read on below for my thinking behind the decision.
Fixed points and linear slopes.
My 9-5 job was a great fixed point with a slow and certain linear slope.
Great fixed point - solid income, great benefits, well-known company.
Slow and certain linear slope - the opportunities to build cool stuff quickly and develop meaningful relationships were sparse.
Are slow and certain growth equations inherently bad? Heck no.
Stability in professional life can give way to a number of beautiful things in people's personal lives such as raising a family, serving your community, pursuing a hobby that gives you joy, etc.
I know this firsthand. Taking on the personal risk of vanlife would not have been possible without the professional stability of my 9-5, but I'm ready to make a trade.
It's time for me to swap personal risk and professional stability for personal stability and professional risk.
Why? I'm pursuing exponential growth.
This is a 5min clip from my podcast when I spoke with Gregg Vanourek, co-author of Life Entrepreneurs. We spoke about linear vs. exponential growth nearly 2 years ago. I've thought about this section of our conversation almost every single day since.
What does exponential growth look like?
Exponential growth occurs when we allow things to compound.
My goal is two-fold: 1. Build digital leverage that compounds. 2. Build personal habits that compound.
Digital Leverage - when I build a digital product once, it can be sold or be read as many times as people click on it. For me, this looks like building AI products that serve others and writing pieces that help inform others (such as this piece here.)
Personal Habits - when I work on improving my habits, I don't try to be good at them. I just try to be consistent. I believe personal growth comes from doing a bunch of monotonous things 1000s of times. If you expect the 1st rep to be good, you'll stop before you achieve the 10,000th rep that will be great.
Why couldn't I build digital leverage or personal habits at my 9-5? I could, but only sporadically.
I previously wrote a piece titled "Modern Day Ownership" on the importance of viewing time, timing, and creativity as assets.
My time was limited by my job. Even when I had the time, my creative reserves were often depleted by hurried work that needed to be delivered urgently instead of deep work that could be delivered intentionally.
Perhaps more importantly, I quickly identified that one of these assets seemed to be slipping away - timing.
A previous piece that I wrote on the importance of investing in non-monetary assets.
A note on timing.
I'm single and don't have kids. When that season of life comes, I want to be fully present for it.
By quitting my 9-5, I am decreasing cash flow, increasing my time, increasing my creative energy, and maximizing my timing - all things that will likely prove to be harder to pull off when supporting a family.
I owe it to my future family to pursue entrepreneurship now for 2 reasons:
The initial 18 months are likely going to be immensely challenging. I will have long days that are not conducive to being a strong contributor in a family.
I am grinding now to gain greater ownership of my time so that I can be a part t-ball practices, dance recitals, skateboarding sessions, painting experiences, or whatever other activities my future kids enjoy.
These two things are in alignment with my mission to love deeply, serve joyfully, and explore valiantly, as detailed in my piece "Starting with The End in Mind."
A previous piece I wrote on my mission.
Defining success, failure, risk, and fear.
What does success look like? Building my product skills, making great friends, and - God-willing - starting a profitable business by failing repeatedly, learning from it, and trying again.
What does true failure look like? Expecting things to go perfectly (mistakes and unexpected circumstances are inevitable) or not showing up everyday. Even if I don't achieve a profitable business, I need to avoid these two things so that I'm able to look myself in the mirror and know that I gave it my all.
What does risk look like? Potential embarrassment and the opportunity cost of temporarily not padding my retirement accounts - cheap expenses to incur in pursuit of exponential growth.
What does fear look like? The fear of my ideas surely dying behind the walls of an institution is greater than the fear of them potentially dying on the open market.
So, now what? I don't have unlimited financial runway, so I need to develop new streams of income.
I'm actively working on startup ideas right now (more on that soon 🪶 .)
I quit my job.
Why?
The fear of my ideas surely dying behind the walls of an institution is greater than the fear of them potentially dying on the open market.
My plan: ship Feather AI, write The Build, repeat.
— Josh Cadorette (@joshcadorette)
12:49 PM • Jan 18, 2023
This piece was inspired from a single tweet. I'm pretty active on Twitter. Be sure to hit me there for unfiltered thoughts (dangerous, I know.)
What I'm paying attention to:
Here's what SpaceX's satelite internet provider has to say about Mars 🤔 :
"The parties recognize Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities.
Accordingly, disputes will be settled through self-governing principles, established in good faith, at the time of Martian settlement."
Here's the most uplifting piece I read this week:
"The pain became so excruciating that I couldn’t make it...
This couple had zero reason to assist me, but they did: burning an hour of their Saturday morning to help a complete stranger and his kid get back to their car.
When I pulled myself into the car, I thanked them and asked if I could get their phone number. The lady said “it’s, ok, you’ve got the next one.”
Translation: 'Today you.... tomorrow me.'"
Photos of the Week
The laptop, phone, and badge have been turned in.
A young buck fresh out of college in a pre-pandemic world. Corporate might not be my continued route, but I have my first job to thank for making me financially independent and teaching me how to become a product manager.
Eno River State Park in NC. My goal of resting fully on Sundays is off to a great start.
Thanks for reading
Where are you taking risks in your life, and how can I help?
Let me know by replying below,
Josh
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