2020 — Year In Review
TLDR
2020 was a wild year across the board so I’ll spare the generic recap of the Black Mirror episode we all played a part in 🤣. In fact for that, I recommend the 2020 special on Netflix cuz it’s truly delightful.
On the personal front, I felt like it was a pivotal year for me. I learned a ton in so many different areas and made significant progress towards being the dude I want to be. Of course it did not come with challenges — dealing w/quarantine, business challenges, cabin fever, girlfriend and I living/working on top of each other, etc, etc, etc. But in the end, the pandemic gave me an opportunity to read, write, and learn more than I ever have before.
On the work front, it had all the makings of a typical rollercoaster year which is fine cuz I’m used to this shit after 7 years haha. We started the year on the ropes, near-death again but finished the year in the strongest position we’ve ever been. We raised investment from some of the best investors in the world, hired some amazing people, and rolled out our business model that’s actually working aka we are finally generating revenue! So while it was another rollercoaster year, I really do expect things to be much different this year 😎 as things are falling into place.
Things I did
🏔 Prota Ventures Founder Retreat in Washington
🏝 Escaped to Fripp Island (Quarantine)
🏖Escaped to Plum Island to visit Uncle Scott and Aunt Mimi
🍷 Ohio Wine Country
🏈 10th Annual Jungle Draft (Fantasy Football)
🕺 Weddings
🗻 Colorado
Vail
Silverthorne (Copper Mountain) and Breckinridge
Favorites
- Dune (book)
- The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie (book)
- The Ride of a Lifetime (book)
- Flowers for Algernon (book)
- Crooked Colours (music)
- Queen’s Gambit (Netflix series)
- Yummly (app that keeps track of all my recipes)
- Notion (app for work and personal, such an awesome program)
Things I Learned
There are many different, random things I learned but the biggest takeaway I have when reflecting is that you have to carve your own path, create your own philosophy, and optimize your own operating system.
It’s easy to look to books, podcasts, philosophies, religions, etc for all the answers but in the end, I’d rather spend some time and energy to arrive at answers that work for me and come from within. Not to say I don’t love and benefit from consuming all sorts of information disseminated from the great minds throughout history because I do love doing that. Just saying the application needs to go a step further.
So that’s one of my main goals this year —to make great progress on constructing my own philosophy and worldview. Same goes for business too. I love learning about different frameworks, concepts, models, etc but I view that as inspiration until it’s properly applied and tweaked for what works for us.
Things to look forward to in 2021
- Traveling around the world — we have a wedding to go to in England, I have investors in Europe, and team members scattered across various other parts of the world (all of which I’d like to visit and meet in person)
- Building and growing a world class team and company @ Rapchat
- Visiting my buddy in Alaska before he moves back
- Learning to fly fish
- Spending more time with family
- Reading + writing more
- Launching a new personal site
- Learning to make beats
- Strengthening relationships with some of the awesome founders and operators I got to connect with in 2020
- Going to Canada with my day one dudes
- Cheffing up more, I really leveled up my game in the kitchen in 2020 so super pumped to continue to improve my craft
