Newsletter II
On consistency, writing and on why I write all this nonsense
Hi everyone,
About 3 weeks ago, I published my first newsletter with a commitment to publish 1 post & 1 newsletter, per week. Obviously, I failed, and that’s ok.
It’s important to constantly re-assess your priorities and break some commitment if and when it makes sense. Having that optionality though comes at a cost since you have to earn it.
Well, I haven’t. But let me try again.
In this second newsletter, I will be sharing my 3rd post (in GREEK) from my "From the Greek University to a Startup” series, which I briefly discuss my own experience following the tips and principles I mentioned in Part 1, and Part 2.
I have also changed the medium, moved to Substack from Mailchimp.
Just to learn another tool, for the sport of it.
It’s a story that I wanted to share for quite some time, in order to illustrate that it’s possible for anyone to do interesting things during his/her university years and make the leap towards an exciting career.
You know, a career in Greece is a strange thing. Greece, historically, has been a poor country, started as a poor and illiterate country, fought its way through independence, only to be riddled with depts and more wars. Coming from a poor background, with a scarcity mindset, people connected work to earn for a living in an environment that was as unstable as it could get.
In this environment, the greek culture emerged to value stability above all, with parents pushing their offsprings to become educated to pursue a better future, a more stable one. This mindset still rages in 2020 and young adults, such as myself, are not keen to take risks, as they don’t have the role models that prove that such risks can lead to positive outcomes.
Rather, I know a lot of adults at my age (24) who follow a certain profession because it’s “ensured”, because their parents pressured them when they were 18 or because they can’t fathom themselves doing what they love. I find this completely infuriating, as your job is an activity that you will spend 1/3 of your life doing, with another 1/3 of your life spent on sleeping.
I can’t fathom not doing what I love, and because of that, I worked day and night to ensure that I will be able to do what I love and earn a living. In reality, I did not have a choice, because as a person who finds meaning through his work, not doing all the preparation and starting from an unpleasant job would simply make me miserable. I believe that everybody should do what they love, and on top of that, I believe that it is possible.
If you do what you love, you will do it exceptionally, you will create value in some form. If you do it, there has to be a way to monetize and live off from that. With the power of the internet and the connectivity of today, it’s simply impossible not to monetize your passion. The only question is how. (Hm, interesting post idea, noted)
With my blog post series, I want to share my side of the story, which illustrates that some risk can indeed lead to a more interesting life. Although the risks I took are modest at best, compared to students who devote all their waking hours to an idea, I believe there is merit in sharing them. Due to their modesty, they don’t require exceptional attributes, such as laser focus or fiery passion, but rather, they can be taken by anyone.
That is the reason that I wanted to share my experience in the first place. To iIllustrate how unexceptional and doable is the ability to learn about stuff on the internet, stuff that will land you your dream job.
The only fuel that you really need, is a desire to learn and discover the world without any aid, on your terms and pace.
I hope that you excuse my lousy writing and that you find it remotely interesting or educational. If you do, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I am dying to learn what other people think of the nonsense that I write.
See you in 1 week 🙇♂️
Things that I read this Week
Growth without Goals
To put it bluntly, goals are for losers. That’s literally true most of the time. For example, if your goal is to lose ten pounds, you will spend every moment until you reach the goal—if you reach it at all—feeling as if you were short of your goal. In other words, goal-oriented people exist in a state of nearly continuous failure that they hope will be temporary. That feeling wears on you. In time, it becomes heavy and uncomfortable. It might even drive you out of the game… If you achieve your goal, you celebrate and feel terrific, but only until you realize you just lost the thing that gave you purpose and direction. Your options are to feel empty and useless, perhaps enjoying the spoils of your success until they bore you, or set new goals and reenter the cycle of permanent presuccess failure.
Forget About Setting Goals. Focus on This Instead
None of this is to say that goals are useless. However, I've found that goals are good for planning your progress and systems are good for actually making progress.
Goals can provide direction and even push you forward in the short-term, but eventually a well-designed system will always win. Having a system is what matters. Committing to the process is what makes the difference
Tweet of the week
This is great Odyssea! I enjoy your writings. Keep up the good work!