2017 was the most challenging year of my life. I had depression. I thought about suicide a couple of times. Often things felt scary, and I struggled to get out of bed. I almost ran out of money, ultimately. I had to ask my parents for financial help, and I was 28. It felt embarrassing. I had impostor’s syndrome.
I don’t think I would ever kill myself. I am much stronger than that. That said, life was painful from May-November of that year. I had lost my grandpa, which for me was like losing my father. I had anchor LPs commit to ONEVC, only to vanish last minute.
There were many times I wanted it all to vanish. You wake up, and everything sucks. I know how it feels.
Today, having found significance in life and having had self-actualized I am in love with life.
HQ's Trivia CEO and Vine's co-founder, Colin Kroll, killed himself during this holiday season. Last year Anthony Bourdain and Kate Space killed themselves in the same week. All successful in their fields.
You can only find happiness within. You deserve it (we all do), but you have to work for it. Work on yourself first. Always.
Last week a great article on founder mental health was posted on TechCrunch. We need to talk about this matter.
Founders are:
Recently I came across the "what we are reading" list from Collaborative Fund and found this simple, but impactful image:
Happiness = being somewhere between having too much and too little. Look at David Rubenstein, Buffet, Gates, etc.
I promise you that it goes away. Like everything in life, it is all temporary. You must fight a good fight with yourself, as you are the only one capable of your salvation. Find guidance in mentors, religion, love, friends, therapy, work but if YOU don’t take action, nobody will.
You must be the captain of your soul, the master of your destiny.
Focus on the things money can't buy. It will put you on the fast track for self-actualization. I try to keep things simple. I am happy if I am writing, working on getting fit, loving my girlfriend, family, friends, and building ONEVC. In no particular order.
The first VC I saw speaking about this was Feld. Kudos to him too.
ps: if you need help, feel free to reach out.
For all the crazy ones out there building their own empires as founders: keep pushing through the pain. Win against the enemy. You are destined for greatness.
We humans have a lot to improve. Even the current “salvation systems” are subject to issues that permeate the weaknesses of the human spirit.
The past couple of weeks have been pretty exhausting. I am still in the process of moving to the East Coast and it is taking far longer than what I would have h