2020 feels like a decade of history packed into a couple short months.
Yet nothing happened. We waited. Lived in starts and sputters as restrictions came and went.
So much Netflix 🤮
Welcome 2021 can’t wait to travel again pic.twitter.com/dRp90cruX7
— Swizec Teller (@Swizec) January 1, 2021
The days are long but the weeks are short
Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years. ~ Bill Gates
Since 2020 felt like the longest decade, we got a decade of work done ... right?
Not quite my friend.
For me, the year felt like a war of attrition. Little by little, hour by hour, time slipped through my fingers.
Each day felt endless. Dragging. Like you couldn't find enough to do to fill such a long stretch of time.
And then it's next week. 😳
The year that felt like a drag and ended in the blink of an eye.
Think of noteworthy events in your life since March. Your life. Not politics, not news, not pandemics. What did you do?
What did Swiz do
I wish I could share a heroic story like last year. A story of bucking trends, beating odds, winning life.
Instead it's a story of grey. Habits, systems, brick stacking. Smol success.
A story of days that felt meh. Without a goal, little direction, hanging on by a thread. Habits kept me going.
New habits
I started a plague diary. Every morning I write 3 pages by hand. Clear the cobwebs. Write what comes to mind.
On the first day of wfh, I started The Plague Diary — a daily handwritten journaling habit. On day 179, I start the 3rd notebook. We’re in it for the long haul friends pic.twitter.com/PYBy94LSjH
— Swizec Teller (@Swizec) September 12, 2020
It's been wonderful. Better than the 750words.com digital version.
Writing by hand feels nice. Slow. Gets you off the computer. 😌
And I've been getting up early!
The guy who wrote Why Programmers Work at Night now gets up at 6am. Sometimes earlier.
It's better that way. Lets you think your own thoughts before your brain is full of other people's crap.
As long as you avoid the internet. I'm working on that part 😅
Trends that continued
2020 was the year of keeping on.
Worked on my business in the mornings before the day job. That flow worked wonders.
Translated to 1319 dones, 94 new posts on swizec.com, a few emails just for the newsletter. Not sure how many videos I uploaded to YouTube.
But 234 video lessons on Vimeo 🤘 for folks who buy a course. The embedded player looks nicer.
694 users of my new course platform. Coming back and logging in, not just buy and forget ❤️
And it looks like folks continue to enjoy my emails. Engagement fell because I didn't write in December, but looking good.
\$\$\$
I've always been fascinated by your transparency about your financial progress over the years - what have you learned, financial growth, good/bad decisions, how you are spending money/savings accounts. For me personally, It has been enormously motivating and has helped me a lot!
— Zan Keglic (@ZanKeglic) December 30, 2020
Following the Profit First method has done wonders. The year felt stable with little stress.
It helps that in June I changed jobs. Now there's exciting new challenges and way more salary.
Was going to make a product around job searching and interviewing, but the process took a week. There was nothing to say.
It surprised me how easy the path to ridiculous money is in San Francisco. As long as you're okay working for someone else. 2 days of effort turned into a $40k raise 😅
That shook me. Rocked my worldview.
$59k in product sales 👉 hard work and hustle
— Swizec Teller (@Swizec) December 18, 2020
$159k in salary 👉 lots of time but super chill
$43k in stock returns 👉 hard on the nerves, no work
capitalism is weird
Yes those are my numbers.
Going into 2021, the LLC has a 6 month runway for my salary (dayjob pays through LLC for reasons), prepaid all taxes, got 100k in my index funds, and 50k in the retirement fund.
Achievement unlocked: Zero to 6-figure savings in 4 years 🤘 🎉
— Swizec Teller (@Swizec) November 24, 2020
Yes I know this is in bad taste but fuck it I get to celebrate my life achievements even in 2020 pic.twitter.com/PiHNt8gGyt
The pressure is off and that's weird.
For the last 32 years of my life, money has been the source of stress, worry, concern, and drive. Now I'm fast approaching the "Eh it's just money" mentality.
And I look at my bank account every day. "Is it still there? Was I dreaming? Am I safe? What did I forget to pay, this can't be real"
People who experienced broke-ness get it.
Bricks that got stacked
2020 saw a lot of brick stacking. Work that takes time and effort today and brings results tomorrow.
Or next year 🤞
A big one was migrating swizec.com from Wordpress to Gatsby. Huge improvement in readability, authoring, and reader experience.
Needs more but it's a great start.
And there's a course platform now! ReactForDataviz.com, ServerlessReact.dev, and ServerlessHandbook.dev run off the same Gatsby codebase packaged as an NPM install. 🤘
Super exciting. I think there's big potential here.
Best part is that I can create different newsletter signup flows for different topics. That's going to be a fun playground in 2021.
Another great bit of brick stacking were the workshops and research I did in Q4 – September to December. Building a huge revamp of ServerlessReact to launch soon.
And we can't forget useAuth.dev. Not sure yet if that's a brick or a distraction, but it's helping people with an annoying task.
Fingers crossed the hard work improves this graph.
Building a team
Oh, I've been building a team. Outsource aspects of business that others can do.
3 interviews tomorrow
— Swizec Teller (@Swizec) April 24, 2020
3 on sunday
2 monday morning
So many people wanna help with my sidehustle stuff 😍 pic.twitter.com/LcM3qxE36x
Harder than I thought. Mad respect to everyone who gets it right fast.
We're making good progress. Coming together, building systems, figuring out how to do it right. I fear I jumped too early and there isn't enough demand and revenue.
But without this I'll die. Can't do everything yourself. Such is the bootstrapping paradox.
There's entire blogs I could write about this. Lemme know if you're interested.
What Swiz failed to do
Highlights are nothing without the lowlights.
Here's everything that failed:
- did not make $130k in product sales (the main goal)
- didn't finish ServerlessHandbook.dev (1.5 chapters left)
- disappointed folks with editing delays on ServerlessReact.dev
- failed to make SRD as good as I wanted (fixing)
- didn't start a daily short video thing
- couldn't grow sales for RDV (still at $1k/month average)
- didn't crack newsletter growth (churn and growth are balanced)
- didn't build markdownemail.com
- failed to fix UX of SparkJoy widgets at bottom of emails
- didn't build a SaaS
- failed to build a marketing flywheel
- failed to outsource parts of creation process
- did not take a break after every quarter
- haven't productized the course platform
- can't run 26km under 2 hours
😅
A year of lasts
Towards December 2020 a thing became clear: I need to kill my darlings.
Too many projects that are in progress. Too many good habits. Too much everything.
Friends, ever feel like you're working working working and nothing's happening? Me too.
— Swizec Teller (@Swizec) December 2, 2020
I think there's 3 reasons:
1. You're burning out
2. You're working on the wrong things
3. You're a lion chasing mice#DeepWorkDecember
📹 https://t.co/QKJIqgFUY2 pic.twitter.com/s8d19nahqF
This year I want to go deep. Fewer projects. More shipping, more value, bigger. Focus on long-term games and building assets.
Don't know what's getting killed yet. I love my darlings. ❤️
What's your plan for 2021? How can I help?
Happy new year,
~Swizec
PS: can you answer a couple questions about these emails to help me improve?
Continue reading about Reflecting on 2020
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