2019 — Year in review
Writing this one from our beautiful spot in Belize where my girlfriend and I are unwinding for the next few days:
Due to the fact I want to get to down the beach ASAP, going to keep this one short and sweet. Same format as usual — things I did, things I learned, favorites, and and things to look forward to in 2020.
2019 was one of the more interesting + eventful years of my life. Lots of ups and downs, lots of learnings, lots of challenges, and lots of breakthroughs. It felt like a ‘build up’ year if that makes sense — similar to a build up episode in a series like Game of Thrones. These episodes may not be the most fun or gratifying but they serve a major purpose in setting up the next episode or season which I am PUMPED for.
Things I did
Lake Tahoe
Fripp Island
Annual Canada Trip with the boys (golfing, fishing, hanging)
Adopted ARLO (our first pup)
10th annual Jungle Fantasy Football draft
Visited Aunt Mimi / Uncle Scott on Plum Island
Visited our friends in Nashville for first time (and hung out w/Miley at the bowling alley)
Browns vs Patriots in Boston (poured on us and we got our ass kicked but still an awesome trip while staying at the Rally Point Inn!)
Annual Franklin Hotel with Uncle Scott — this is where we drink old fashioneds (with the occasional Sazerac), recap the year, talk life, and get ready for next year
Things I learned
- As it relates to startups and Rapchat — SURVIVAL is literally everything if you have a vision and believe in what you’re building, you can always find a way to keep the ship sailing…note — you may have to make some uncomfortable decisions or changes along the way that truly suck tho
- Investing in shit that doesn’t give you anything back can lead to burnout and wasted energy (exhibit A — the browns)
- You have to take care of yourself to be effective in other aspects of life (business, relationships, etc, etc) … when you run a startup, it’s too easy to get consumed in doing a million things that you forget to take care of yourself (basic shit like sleeping, eating decent, working out) and when that happens — your actual performance on the field struggles
- How to code in a few more languages — finally conquered front end web development out of necessary to build some things for us @ Rapchat…this is awesome and rewarding but also going forward — I shouldn’t be coding as much as I did in Q4 (something I hope to fix first thing next year)
- That we all undervalue our time — this is one of the most impactful lessons I learned from Naval — https://nav.al/renting-time
- ENERGY is a simple math equation (put in positive energy into things -> get out positive energy, surround yourself with positive people and influence -> positive energy … put in negative energy or spend time w/negative people -> get negative energy in return)
- Oh and most importantly, how to grow tomatoes :)
Favorites
- Endurance (book)
- the Godfather (book)
- Recursion (book)
- Slenderbodies album (music)
- Aaron May album (music)
- YBN Cordae album (music)
- Pollen playlist (music)
- Soulection Radio (music)
- Status as a Service (blog post)
Things to look forward to in 2020
- Continuing to upgrade the operating system (body, mind, everything)
- Learning more things
- Reading + writing more (always a goal)
- Getting money (hard for me to focus on this sometimes as it never really came as a natural desire but fuck it, need to for the team, fam, investors, etc)
- Managing my time better
- Growing as a leader
- Traveling more / setting myself up to have more control/freedom
- Building stronger relationships with people who give back positive energy
OK…that’s a RAP! Heading down to the beach to read, think, drink, and get ready for a BIG 2020.
And a big THANK YOU to everyone in my life for showing me love, supporting me, etc, etc, etc. Very grateful for all of y’all 🙏
PS — with these yearly reviews, I tend to focus on the positives/highlights…mainly because it’s fun and easier to recall. However, there were also a ton of challenges and obstacles that got in the way of what I hoped to accomplish. Again, it felt like a ‘grinding’ year where I didn’t really get to see the W on the scoreboard quite yet but I put in the work necessary to set me up for what I hope to be a massive, massive 2020. Just want to add this footnote because re-reading this it’s easy to think damn that was amazing year and it was haha but there were still very tough parts that I couldn’t really fit in here.
