I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.
Not enough time to travel
Hi Reader,
ConvertKit has been so busy lately, I haven’t felt like I can take a lot of time to travel or do other things.
It feels like to make a trip worth it, I need to take a decent amount of time off, and when things are busy, that’s hard to justify.
But in September, I made some time to go to Mexico City to do a trip with New Story (one of the charities we support). This was one of my goals for the year.
I brought my sons, Oliver and August, with me, and we left Thursday morning.
The boys got to travel to a new country, experience a different culture, visit one of the largest cities in the world (Mexico City is amazing), and spend time in the small community of homes that New Story built.
And we were only gone 4 days.
Though we left on a Thursday, I was still able to get 4 hours of work done on the flight. Since we got home on Sunday, that meant I really only took a day and a half off of work for us to have a great experience. The amount of time was just right, because the kids wouldn’t have even wanted to be gone for longer anyway.
My takeaway: just take the trip. Create the experience. You have time.
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See if you qualifyY COMBINATOR ARTICLE
What’s the Second Job of a Startup CEO?
At a Pixar management meeting, Steve Jobs said:
Jobs said that was the time he used to think, drop in on the people he wanted to speak with, and let his curiosity roam. He said it was his time to be creative, and without that free time, he would never have been able to stay ahead of the company.
The article, written by Ali Rowghani, goes on to say:
"Reaching the point of having a lot of unscheduled think time is perhaps the clearest sign of success for a Phase 2 CEO. It suggests that you have hired a leadership team, delegated the day-to-day activities to them, and codified Mission, Strategy, and Metrics well enough for them to operate effectively without your daily involvement. Your reward is the bounty of time to think and plan the future of your startup."
FROM TWITTER
Faster vs slower
A thought experiment tweeted by James Clear:
Have a great week, and Happy New Year!
—Nathan
Nathan Barry
I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.
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