Hey, I hope you're having a festive holiday season.
The final post for the year is a personal retrospective. Consider it the second one in the Forever Endeavour series. Occasional posts where I write about the journey itself (you can read the first on routine design here).
Thanks for being a subscriber and supporting my work – I appreciate it!
PS: I initially intended to round the year off with the third essay of my Hollywood + Crypto series (part one, part two), but we'll return to this early next year.
Big Changes
The biggest change of the year came in October. I started the year as the CEO of DX, a web2 SaaS company. I end the year as a full time independent writer, advisor and doing some occasional investing in startups. More on that later.
On Writing
2024 marks the first full year of consistently publishing essays at a weekly cadence (for most of the year). This post is the 40th post of the year.
Why weekly? It adds just the right amount of pressure; enough to create consistent progress, but not so much that I spiral into becoming a slop producing machine (Hello to all the LinkedIn Content Creator Influencers).
On the other side, without pressure I could see myself over-perfecting and rarely publishing. Progress and consistency matters.
Three reasons to write:
Learn and better understand the changes and opportunities coming
Clarify my thoughts, ideas and concepts
A magnet to find interesting people (thanks to everyone that I've had a chance to connect with this year!)
I will approach 2025 with the intention to write weekly essays, but also with the space to adapt. Some weeks may be busy with other projects, or I may be working on things that take more than a week. For instance, I've had this idea of writing a comprehensive "Future of Onchain Entertainment Primer" on the backburner for a few months. Regardless, expect frequent new pieces in 2025 :)
Some of the pieces I had the most fun with this year:
On Work beyond Writing
As briefly mentioned in the intro, I transitioned out of my prev. company and CEO role in October. Why? Several reasons. I had been at the company for more than a decade. There's a time for everything.
Second, over the past few years I've spent many of my evenings thinking and writing about the future of entertainment, the onchain economy and all of the opportunities to come.
Doing that part-time only gets me so far. I'm convinced we're at an important inflection point. The onchain economy will continue growing, AI will be everywhere. It's going to create massive changes, and massive opportunities. Both in entertainment and beyond.
This seems like the right time to make some changes to enable myself to spend all of my time at the edge of the curve.
I spent some time reflecting on the above throughout the first half of 2024. In a curious coincidence, someone recommended me a book around the same time; Lighter by Yung Pueblo. I bought it. On one of the first pages:
pick the path that lights you up
the one you know deep down is the right choice
stop listening to doubt
start connecting with courage
do not let the idea of normal get in the way
it may not be the easy path
but you know great things take effort
lean into your determination
lean into your mission
lean into the real you
And off I went on my next career chapter.
So, what now? I'll write to explore trends and topics I'm convinced matter. I'll write as a way to clarify thinking and continuously learn. And, I'll publish concepts and frameworks that describe my convictions for the future. When I come across projects, people and companies with visions that align with those convictions, I want to make investments and work in advisory capacities to help them propel towards that future. I already have some interesting projects cooking that I'll share more about next year!
Hopefully this writing will continue to be valuable for you, too.
Through my career I have received executive coaching from multiple coaches. Those experiences have been formative for me. During my tenure as CEO I also coached my own management team. Working together with people at this depth is very meaningful. I will spend 2025 looking at ways to formalize this. It would be great to work in a coaching capacity with a couple of ambitious founders/builders at some point.
If you, or someone you know, fit any of the above – please reach out or feel free to make introductions!
On Reading
I want to end this by sharing a few of my favorite reads this year:
Never Enough - Andrew Wilkinson
How Adam Smith Can Change your Life
The Money Trap
Lighter - Yung Pueblo
Same as Ever - Morgan Housel
The Lion Tracker's Guide to Life - Boyd Varty
Bonus: I also read "The Surrender Experiment" by Michael Singer again this year. It's one of the most impactful books I've read. I read it once a year ever.
On Goals
Setting goals is a great way to drive structured progress towards specific outcomes. I've set goals both on personal and company levels for many years. 2025 will be different.
2025 will be a year of exploration for me. So, instead of setting goals, I will have one intention: To let curiosity and creative energy guide me.
Thanks for following along in 2024. See you in 2025!
As always, reach out to me on X, Farcaster if you have feedback or are working on something cool you want to discuss.
