“One of the most important decisions you will make is not how hard you work, but what you decide to work on”
This is one of the most important questions you can ask
The question about how you should spend your time and dedicate your life.
Is what you are doing worth your time and your potential?
Is it the best thing out of all the possible things you could be doing?
I see it as choosing the vehicle.
You can choose a broken down truck, a bicycle, or a damn supersonic jet.
First you need to understand yourself.
Part of that is by getting in the wrong vehicle.
Some vehicles have problems that break down as you are riding in them. Some of them have speed limits on them. Some can be upgraded.
But how do you know how fast something can go or what the limits are until you test it?
It’s all about self awareness and being able to look at your blindspots.
So, am I in the right vehicle?
I’m building an online admissions platform to study abroad.
At some times I have felt like I’m hitting my head against a wall.
Is the limit myself, have I just not cracked some simple thing yet? Or is there something fundamentally broken about what I’m doing?
I think what I’m doing is special, because I can feel that I’m learning and growing all the time.
Yes there are sometimes plateaus, but that is also exciting because that is how it works.
It’s an industry with high potential, big opportunity, pitfalls, traps, and circuses.
The limit is never the vehicle, the industry, or the opportunity.
It’s me.
My mindset.
I just need to make sure to learn the lessons of what I’m doing.
Identify the plateaus and experiment faster.
Instead of trying to hold it together manually, or fixing small things. There are some fundamental parts of the vehicle, that need fixing.
You never need to force it.
Growth is the natural law of the nature if you let go.
It’s not right if something needs your 110% energy and gives back 90%。
Just make sure what we are doing is sufficiently differentiated and profitable so it is really self-sustaining and allows me to breathe and grow as a person, and unleash the power of systems and people and their natural drive to grow.
That means building a great talented team with high performance culture, and optimum incentives, and being free from everything except that thing that only I can do (which shrinks as we grow).
Often people’s weaknesses and strengths are the same thing.
My superpower is my ability to think things through properly. My ideas, my understanding and experience in the industry. My weakness is that I can get sidetracked down in opportunities on the big picture level, or unimportant detail on the micro detail.
My ability to connect different things, and see round corners, does not easily see the limits.
I have many ideas and that’s because my filter is more open.
It’s powerful when its needed and focused on the most important issue of the day.
I will spend more time on content as well to develop what I believe is a superpower.
While trying to be more aware that my blindspots is the walls and limits. Most people don’t see the same way I do. I can easily see multiple points of views and understand that they are all have an element of truth.
I will aim to develop and hire extremely talented people who can self manage. Limit meetings to 10 minutes, and use writing as much as possible. I will train proper administrators who can manage the day to day more easily so I don’t need to do things that anyone else can do, so I can spend more time on those areas that are important and that can make a difference and actually need it.
Luckily, this industry and opportunity has multiple opportunities to enable fast, profitable growth that is easy.
Like a fast car picking up speed.
I am excited for the journey ahead.
And when we reach the limit, we can upgrade to that super-sonic jet.
