i don’t have dreams very often.
but when i do, there are 3 kinds:
dreams i know i’m dreaming
active shooter scenarios
recaps of conversations i had
last night, my dream was a recap — & it was a conversation that i remember being so nervous for.
it was with Dave, a successful entrepreneur who was my favourite client from my car detailing business.
& i had some bad news for him.
see, it was my plan all along that when i put my equipment away for the winter, i wouldn’t be bringing it out again in the spring.
but when the spring hit & customers came calling, i had a pit in my stomach.
because let’s look at the facts here.
my car detailing business gave me:
fast money
existing paid clients
predictable hours
clear inputs & outputs
& i was trading it away for:
future money
no paid clients
unpredictable hours
unclear inputs & outputs
going all-in on my online business meant starting from scratch all over again.
i knew it, my family knew it, & after telling Dave, he would know it as well.
& i was certain that he’d say the same thing everybody else had told me:
are you sure? why can’t you just do both businesses? it seems like a big risk.
& what could i say?
they were right!
but i knew i had to make the call.
so i picked up the phone, dialled Dave’s number, & it went something like this:
— hey Dave, how’s it goin?
——— pretty good Liam, are you still doing the cars this year?
— bad news. i’m not detailing anymore. i’ve been working on a little online business & i decided to just go for it.
i braced for the same old questions & unasked for advice…
but they never came.
——— good for you man. you’ve got more in you than cleaning cars all your life.
we ended the call & i just sat with it for a second.
that was months ago.
today, i’m still building things from scratch. i’m still writing these emails. i’m making videos again. & i’m creating an offer i don’t know if anyone wants.
& i still wake up some mornings wondering if i’m making a mistake.
but do you wanna know what keeps me going?
i’ve been here before.
i went from never detailing → cleaning friends’ cars → detailing business
i went from bad videos → good videos → viral videos
i went from 0 subscribers → a few hundred → almost 20k
& every single time, the early days felt fucking awful.
the best way i can describe it is like starting a marathon — only, you don’t know where the finish line is, you didn’t bring the right shoes, & there’s a crowd of people on the sidelines reminding you how stupid you are for doing it.
it sucks.
but every single time i had that feeling, something else happened too:
the path revealed itself as i started walking it.
there’s a book called The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz, & i found myself relating to it more than most books i’ve read.
the short version is this:
the hard thing about hard things isn’t the hours.
it’s not the rejection.
it’s not the money, or the loneliness, or the days you feel like a loser.
& it’s not even the failures along the way.
the hard thing about hard things is that there’s no road map.
because nobody has walked your exact path before.
it’s just you & this constant uncertainty that doesn’t go away with sleep.
but Dave was an entrepreneur too.
i don’t think my call surprised him, because he spent years in that chapter.
& truthfully, i’m still in it right now.
but i’ve learned to stop waiting for clarity before i take the next step.
because the path isn’t visible — to you or to anybody else — until after you walk it.
so just start walking.
some things i learned
envy, explained
time is different for everyone
when Europeans & Americans visualize time, they imagine the past as behind them & the future in front of them.
the Aymara, an indigenous group in the Andes highlands, sees the opposite. they point forward when referring to the past, since they have already seen it, & the future lies behind their backs, unseen.
one result is that Aymara people are known to be stress-free about waiting a half-day for a bus, or for a friend who arrives way behind schedule.
(credit: Stefan Klein)a night of poor sleep is better than a day of wasted output
as a night owl, sometimes i give in to my late surge of energy & stay up late to get stuff done. it’s usually a bad idea, but sometimes it’s worth doing — with 1 key rule: i’m not allowed to sleep in the next morning.
if i let myself sleep in, i get nothing done until the afternoon. so when i stay up late, i accept that the cost of it will be less sleep overall. this seems to work pretty well for me.
related quote: don’t stay up late for something you wouldn’t wake up early for.
cool stuff i found
a photo of the year candidate
‘each circle has a different story’
a life surrounded by stories
Mohamed Aziz is a 72y/o bookseller in Morocco who reads for 6-8 hours every day. he’s read more than 5000 books in 43 years at his shop.
if you’re wondering (like i was), his favourite novel is Les Misérables.
chatgpt fears this man the gen alpha melody
you’re not imagining it — some songs literally sound the exact same now. just watch the first 30s of this if you’re not convinced:
that’s all for this week!
if you’re wondering why this is being sent on a Tuesday afternoon, it’s because i broke my own rule & slept in today.
that’s embarrassing to admit, but i always want to call myself out publicly so you don’t think of me as some guru who has his shit together.
we’re all still learning — & that’s my favourite thing about life!
go make yourself proud this week.
~ liam (:
PS - keep an eye out for my next video
‘forgive yourself for not knowing earlier what only time could teach.’
~ Maya Angelou