May 16th, 2020
It took 3 days, but now I’m starting to get some clarity.

I need to extend this time off for another week, I think. Keep driving, keep thinking.

What is the root of this burnout? When people ask, I say a lot of things to make excuses for myself.

But the root is in my new business that's not doing very well.

It has been really hard.

I think it’s been hard for a number of reasons:

  1. My previous business success was a lot of luck - I got lucky in a few ways
  2. The previous business had a much lower level of difficulty
  3. I’m getting stuck in my own way - my own vision and ego are harming both businesses

How to fix this?

The first thing I want to say is that I won’t be giving up. 

I won’t be giving up because:

  1. I have had some success with all this. It’s not a complete failure.
  2. Starting over is a crutch. I can switch and change things without starting over, and save time in the long run.
  3. I’m still obsessed with the problems I’m trying to solve.

I just need a better framework to make decisions and change these things.

It's especially hard as a solo founder. Instead of having someone to bounce these things off of - you must go internally & look inside to make change.

This can be a good thing because you can make change without friction (w/o fighting with your cofounder). But this can be a bad thing if you simply never change.

And I won't change unless I can become more self-aware, more open to feedback, and most importantly, letting go of my ego.

Instead of thinking “this is how it will be in 5 years”, think about “how can I find the right customers, talk to them, and get more feedback and change and tweak things”.

How do I build a framework for this?

I already have a baseline. Starter Story - it’s a massive benefit. Income coming in every month, lots of users, and a platform to work and try and experiment on new things.

Just like DHH and Jason Fried at Basecamp - they have a successful product and personal following and ways of thinking - but they constantly are evolving and releasing (and often failing) at many products.

I need to be more on the ground floor, open to feedback, and finding the right customers.

I need a framework.

Been watching some videos on “The Lean Startup” - and I really like some of the ideas there. The “Build, Measure, Learn” idea as well the “pivot or persevere” idea.

What I need is to dig deeper there and actually try out these frameworks - to be more on the ground floor. I did this early days with Pigeon and actually made a ton of progress - but as of late I haven’t.

More to come.