notes #3: a lesson that took me 6 years to learn

Hey friends,

It’s 10pm and I wanted to share something that took me 6 years to understand - an important life lesson that I’m still trying to grasp. And it all began with a conversation with my father.

My father was a businessman. And he once told me something I have never forgotten: if you want to be successful in business, you cannot be fearful.

I remembered it not because I agreed with it, but because of how much I disagreed. I thought being smart, driven and having an eye for opportunities were more important.

But the next few years of my life I would learn this very lesson my father was sharing with me.

Five years ago…

I went head-first into learning investing (selecting stocks) — not so much for the money, but for how powerful a skill. I learnt the ins and outs of it through books, annual reports and various research tools.

Apart from the intellectual difficulty it entails, those who have been there and done it would tell you how hard it was emotionally as well — dealing with risk, thinking against the crowd, and being patient (something I chose to ignore).

Anyway, I must have read at least dozens of books and hundreds of annual reports, and even did the whole excel sheet analysis stuff that took 4 hours just to input data for one company — and came up with a couple templates for myself to use down the road.

And when the time came for me to actually put money, I did my due diligence and invested. After a few weeks, I liquidated out of fear.

As time would later teach me, my supposed investments would have quadrupled in just a 1 year period had I just left it (although that’s not the point of this story).

And then three years ago…

I started creating content in the hopes of becoming a YouTuber. I wasn’t sure exactly what to talk about but I had some ideas in mind.

So I start scripting my first video. And then rewrote it again. And again. And then sat on it for some time.

Each time I wondered if people would actually listened to what I had to say… until I finally decided to hit the publish button.

I wanted to create educational videos - because of my background and skill sets (I thought I was good at teaching) - and also because I thought they could be done without showing my face.

I jumped from channel to channel, from long-form videos to short-form content, never staying at one for more than 2 months.

Why? I wasn’t sure if the content I was creating would work. And I moved on to what I thought were greener fields.

I couldn’t stay consistent out of fear.

20 months ago…

I found my passion in writing software and started tinkering with business ideas that can be built on the internet.

I would come up with an idea, think about how brilliant it is, spent hundreds of hours building it, just to hide it in a corner of my shelf (virtual shelf).

I was too scared of sharing it with the world, and sometimes, even with my friends.

I built about 5-6 projects by myself, only one of which I publish to various platforms.

And guess what? Only a few months ago when I checked my stripe account that I realised a few people had purchased the product I published!

What a delight - I’ve officially become an internet entrepreneur! But also so much regret, for not staying the journey.

The hard thing

And recently, when I was reflecting about why I hadn’t been finding any success, I came up with lots of reasons — consistency, discipline, creativity, etc.

And while these were sometimes true, I felt that they didn’t really capture the underlying issue.

That what lies at the root, and what few people talk about, is this: fear.

• I liquidated my investment despite doing my research out of fear (of loss)

• I never shared my business with others out of fear (rejection, embarrassment)

• I never showed my face on camera or shared what mattered out of fear (judgment)

And that’s when it daunt on me: fear was holding me back.

While I strayed onto the path of chasing my dreams, I couldn’t fully leave the comfort of the conventional route.

I wasn’t ready to take the risk. At least subconsciously.

You can be the most brilliant or smart person in the world but if you don’t have the courage to bring it to life, then it’s nothing more than a daydream.

And so one of the most important lessons of my life: leave your fear behind, or get stuck with it.

Cheers,
Joesurf

P.s. not all fear is bad - it’s the reason why we have survived as a species. It’s the irrational fear we have to be careful of. Or as some people have succinctly put it: only fear the irreversible for everything else you have a chance to get back up.

💡 Inspiration of the Week

Franklin D. Roosevelt in his inaugural address on March 4, 1933, when he was sworn in as the 32nd President of the United States.

“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

This statement was made during the Great Depression to inspire hope and resilience in the face of economic hardship.

🧠 Weekly Notes

📖 Book — The Hard Thing about Hard Things: Ben Horowitz shares his stories of building a business and the nature of hard things.

• There is no formula: you can’t really prepare for or predict hard things, and you never know whether it’s the right choice unless in hindsight

• Courage > intellect: hard things are not hard because they are complex, but because it takes tremendous (emotional) energy to work them

📹 Video — Finding and Embracing Opportunities: Enrico Tartarotti, a software engineer who left his job to grow his channel, talks about two concepts in deciding when to leave your job for a bigger opportunity.

• Role of luck: how they influence our lives in subtle ways and create opportunities

• Ramen period: the incubation period where your secondary work (passion, side hustle) grows to become financially equivalent to your primary work (job).