2021 — Year in Review
Better late than never!
It’s nearly February but I’ve done this 10+ years in a row and can’t let another slip by. The “Yearly Review” task has been staring at me on my todo list for weeks so it’s finally time to knock it out and add another to the archive ✅
Currently writing this from quarantine in my spare bedroom since I tested positive for COVID after what feels like 100 run-ins with it haha. But don’t worry, all is well. I feel like I have the flu but think I’ll be back on my feet in a couple days.
So what else am I going to do besides write, read, and binge the new Ozark season??
Without further a-do … here is the 20–21 re-view…
Things I did
🎉 Got engaged
🏠 Bought a house
🏝 Family trip to the Plum
🏈 5th Annual Browns Home Opener Tailgate
🏈 11th Annual Jungle Draft
🕺Weddings
⛳️ Got my first hole-in-one + other fun golf explorations
🎣 Visited Skye (friend from 500)
🏔 Another End-Of-Year Colorado Trip (Breckinridge)
👨🍳 Cheffed up quite a bit, learned a lot
🏃♂️ 100+ runs, mostly with Arlo
🚀 Helped get Rapchat to the best position it’s ever been in
Things I learned
🤯 Easy for me to get overwhelmed, caught off-balance
While I’ve gotten better at finding “balance” between work and life over the years, work can still consume me which removes the ability to be present in my personal life (for ex: I’ll be sitting down having a glass of wine with Morgan and all I can think about is how we’re going to build this feature at Rapchat)
I know some of this distraction or rather, excitement is hard-wired in my DNA. I did an enneagram and to nobody’s surprise I was a strong 7 which is the Enthusiast. One of the top things they mention about 7s is that they have an ability to get caught up doing too much. (fwiw: enneagrams are super fun and scarily accurate…I did one for work and had Morgan do one too — we like to have a good laugh as we look at what the pros and cons are of our types)
The good news is that I definitely feel more aware of myself and my tendencies which helps to provide the context needed to grow + improve.
🧱 Foundational operational systems are so important yet hard to build
For both work and personal, I like to think of systems that exist that enable the thing to go. For me, the personal operating system refers to what I believe, what are my routines, why do I do things, what are my frameworks, etc. I’ve made a lot of progress on my personal OS in recent years but feel some of it has been more surface-level or rather, just distinct blocks that are still necessary but not the core.
For example, I’ve learned a lot of skills and even achieved a lot of goals/milestones but find that I’m missing the thing that could be the thread to pull all of it together and that thread is my belief system or worldview (or a defined purpose/mission). For many, I feel that religon can be this as it gives a pretty nice pre-defined lens to view life in (for ex: exist to serve God).
I wouldn’t identify with any particular belief yet (it’s kind of a box I haven’t opened) and also believe that religon isn’t by any means the only answer to that foundational OS thread but going to continue to work on this and stop here before it gets any deeper or theoretical haha
💻 Company building requires learning new skills, scaling yourself
Founding + running Rapchat has been quite the epic journey. There have been many phases and many different obstacles. I can say in most phases — I’ve had to flex my contributor muscles which means I’ve had to do many different things essential to keeping the product and company running from coding to designing to fundraising and more. Due to my personality, I love that shit — I love a bit of chaos and force functions to create…the idea that we have to do x,y, and z to survive and advance fuels me to get in the trenches and make something happen.
But, now that Rapchat is more stable than it’s ever been after successfully launching a sustainable business model and raising more capital from some amazing investors, it’s time to put a different hat on and completely change the lens in which I view my role. Not that long ago, we had 3 employees, now we have 20. Not that long ago, I was responsible for the entire process of getting products to market from designing <> coding <> marketing, now we have great engineers, designers, and marketers who are capable of doing that better than I.
It’s common that founders find themselves having to go through the transformation from doing to leading as the company grows. In fact, it’s more than common — it’s just reality if you’re CEO and your company is scaling. But, as so many (even public CEOs) state —it’s one of the hardest transformations to endure.
So, that’s where I’m at … essentially learning new skills that revolve around building and empowering great teams, helping employees grow and succeed, and leading a company towards an extraordinary, shared mission.
I view this year as a whole new tour of duty (h/t Spotify CEO for the concept). One in which I truly have the opportunity to grow into the type of leader that I always admired. It requires an entirely different mindset and skillset but hey, I love learning new things and context-switching so currently, finding myself fired up about this tour of duty.
We’ll see how this goes when I go to write my next yearly ha!
2022 Thoughts
🌱 Proactively create blocks to review + invest in my personal operating system
If I don’t proactively create time blocks to review and reflect (like I’m doing now), I’ll continue to be more reactive. As mentioned above, something really important to me is continuing to work towards developing that foundational operating system and worldview. But in order to make progress on that or anything else mentioned, I have to be intentional with time — how I set my weeks up, and how I create windows for things I want to invest in and more. I’ve found some helpful frameworks over the years from essentialism to GTD (getting-things-done) that I’ve taken bits and pieces so just need to compile and build the system that works for me to be proactive > reactive
🌅 Get back to being an early riser
Habits are the building blocks of life yet they’re so hard to change and so hard to create. Sure, you can read Atomic Habits and all the books/blogs you want on it and know WHAT you need to do but actually changing is so fucking hard. After all, we are all human after all and what fun would it be if it were easy…
Not disputing they might be the most impactful part of being human. After all, something like 50% of everything we do is done subconsciously (aka usually habitual without any concious thought).
I’m saving everyone the list of habits I have that I like, don’t like, and hope to change (resolutions) because it’s just a long one and not sure it’s that actionable. BUT for me, personally — the one that sticks out above the rest on the long list is getting up early. I used to be a super early riser and I know that I always do my best work in the morning (at least creative work). Yet, I found myself myself having an irregular sleep schedule, making it hard to start the day on the right foot consistently. Sometimes it’s due to working too late and not being able to turn off. Sometimes it’s due to me simply wanting some “me” time to fuck off and that’s always a great time for that as everyone else is asleep. And sometimes, it’s just the fact I blatantly ignored the typical sleep advice and had caffeine too late or drank a whiskey too late.
Regardless, I’m marking this as a top priority and thinking of it as a cornerstone habit. If I get my mornings right and do my best work (see top goal or essentialism) then the rest of the day should flow pretty smoothly most of the time.
💫 Being a 1/1, embracing uniqueness
This sounds a bit corny but it’s easy to get caught up in what you should be. Especially now that personal growth (or self-help) content has been published and devoured by the world — everyone knows they should eat better, they should sleep 8 hours, they should medidate, they should journal, they should get outside into nature, they should give back, etc, etc, etc.
If you’re in startups, you probably feel this very strongly. Nearly every business book, blog, or VC tweet is overly prescriptive in how you should run your business.
And it can be quite hard to not succomb to internalizing this information. Especially, when you hear the latest sleep expert on a podcast explaining the science behind why you shouldn’t have a glass of wine if you want to get your best sleep.
Of course, it’s great to learn from these experts and books but the key point I’m making is that it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that we’re all unique. We all have unique DNA and we all have unique personality traits and even unique thoughts.
I want to lean into this way more than I’ve been programmed to do in recent years. I want to try new ideas out and want to continue to embrace the uniqueness of being a 1/1. Sure, I’ll continue to compile learnings from books and other souces but I’ll combine that to make someting unique and add my own ingredients on top whether in business or personal life.
After all, isn’t that what makes some of the greatest minds and people in this history of humanity 🐐s? They came up with ORIGINAL ideas and philosophies that have been shared for thousands of years. More to come on this topic I hope in future blog posts…
❤️ Help more people (starting with family, friends)
Looking back, I believe the chaotic lifestyle I’ve had as an entpreneuer has made me a bit more focused on my self than I’d like (for ex: having to consistently use all my energy to keep company alive in past years or consistently bring my best self to work).
But (for) now that we’re past the chaos, I want to invest in helping people and giving my energy to others. I’m so blessed to have an amazing family and friend group that I want to be able to give back to and feel like it’s my turn to. Not to mention, family is getting older and going to need more help. I hope I can rise to the occasion and really make an impact here.
Beyond family and friends, I miss volunteering and doing things like helping underprivileged kids learn how to code or helping those incarcerated learn about entrepreneurship. I have to find a way to create space for this which goes back to being proactive > reactive with my time and energy .
🛑 Seth, slow the f*** down
Even writing this is getting me fired up to do a million things this year haha in fact if you’re still reading this, you’re probably exhausted by all the thought and ideas I have swimming around.
I can already hear Morgan telling me to slow the fuck down and to focus on one thing at a time haha (very thankful for when she does this actually). This happens in both work and personal where I just move too fast which leads to getting balance issues and getting overwhelmed.
Building the “slowing down” muscle would no doubt pay huge dividends for someone like me. Some of this goes hand in hand with getting better at prioritizing which also requires more frequent reflection + thought too.
The obvious remedy many recommend for this is meditation or a mindfulness. I definitely made progress in this category and even found a “sleeping” meditation practice I love called Yoga Nidra (you can find all sorts of guided nap meditations on Spotify and YouTube if you search Yoga Nidra). Nidra is ~25 min guided power nap which is can be a powerful resetting mechanism. Also, running is a form of meditation for me that forces me to slow down and take my dog Arlo who absolutely loves to run out. Arlo consistently lobbies me for a r-u-n everyday so he’s been a clutch accountability partner there too. Either way, good progress but I think if I could adopt something similar to unwind at night before bed, it’d help me sleep better
OK! that is all! Hope everyone is off to a great start this year and a huge THANK YOU goes out to those that continue to support and show love ❤️🙏
