A letter from my future self
Dear Chrys,
I write to you from 5 years in the future. You’re 23 and about to quit your job to start a company, and I want to give you some advice.
You want to quit because of an insatiable fire within – a desire to achieve something greater. The fire burns because you want to lead your own life and be your own man. Never doubt this fire, for this is the fire that will fuel everything you do for the next 5 years.
The road ahead will be will be riddled with challenges. The highs will be high, and the lows will be low, but they will never kill you because the fire perseveres. Whatever the size of the challenge, you won’t back down, because the fire won’t let you.
Learn to control the fire. The fire will make you want to push yourself hard, and if you let it push too hard, it will burn you. Pace yourself and understand your physical limits and preserve health. Know when to sprint, know when to jog, and know when to rest. Everything has a rhythm. Find flow and observe, enter, and adapt to the rhythm.
You will fail. Over time, failure will become second nature. Extract the knowledge, taste the dismay and consume the failure, but never let it consume you. Without failure, the word “success” would never exist. Embrace them both equally.
Continue to exercise. Health is a capital you must maintain, and it will make you a stronger and more vibrant person. Do not neglect your body, you will be delighted to see what it can do.
Never forget that society is man-made. Social constructs mislead people into riding the current of society, which moves at a slow cumulative pace. It’s those who are fully in control that swim ahead and in doing so, escape mediocrity. The way to make a difference is to offer yourself fully to everyone. If you genuinely share all of your faculties, talents, and emotions with the world, then the world will respond. Don’t hold back, because not only will you let yourself down, but you’ll let everyone down around you.
Never stop building, never stop creating, and never stop learning. The moment you do will be the moment you start dying.
If you try, you will win.
Being an entrepreneur is like jumping out of an airplane with all the materials needed to build a parachute. - Glen Blickenstaff
Signed,
Chrys
I drew inspiration from Jesse Farmer’s future letter to self. Interestingly enough, I find myself preaching these things to younger friends of mine that have great potential. This must be the innate desire to enforce the survival of mankind along with the desire to bring other people happiness and alleviate their fears.