On Fear and Opportunity

You know, when I left Apple, I always kinda knew I could go back. That was the idea at least. Go start a startup, and worst case scenario, if things get really bad (homelessness, debt, all the fun things that being an entrepreneur could entail ...), I just go back with new 'experiences', to the old 'experience'.

This type of thinking was helpful when making such a change. I call it 'on-ramping', meaning going from one way of being, to another. You wouldn't believe how difficult this process was.

Thinking I can always go back to the ship, helped me climb off, get onto the sandy beach, and start the journey.

In University, I realized there was the concept of gradual stress. To learn something, you have to give someone a task just a bit harder than the last. If it's a full step change of difficulty, most likely they give up, and break.

So the idea of 'burning the ships'; before you get onto the beach, with no way back home isn't the best way to convince the new recruit to make the leap.

But as time went on, the little project of entrepreneurship became more than:

'this is fun, I'll go back to work someday'. To 'I will get this done, no matter what'. Once a bit more experienced, I became more confident, and a new idea set in. Perhaps that old experience wasn't everything I thought it was…

Everyday is a choice. We get up, and we make a choice to go do the thing we set out to do. Sometimes, making that same choice 2 years from the initial decision is incredibly, outrageously difficult. An old friend of mine would say: "Shayan, tomorrow, I'm gonna start working out. I'm gonna get a 6 pack!" So he'd do it for a few days. And then... stop.

Making the same choice, 365 days on, again and again... now that's the difference between a man and a boy. Or between autism and normalcy 😂

Since everyday is a choice, we are always at a crossroads for how we want our future to look. You are ultimately responsible in that moment, for creating the next moment.

Some choices are difficult, because of what they entail...

Some choices are difficult, because of what they create.

It's been more than 3 years since I left the job to start a new journey. And more than 2.5 years on of coding, and learning. Even today, I'm at a crossroads, and a choice has to be made.

So I ask you, if you were in my shoes, what is scarier? A future where I launch Thaly.ai or some other venture, and it becomes incredibly successful. Or, going back to the old way, the old life, of what I'm used to.

One of the two paths is absolutely terrifying. To become or to be, is really the ultimate question. To become, is always scarier, full of unknowns. To be, to stay the same, is always familiar and safe.

Take the leap, Create your own Sales Agent on https://thaly.ai

#SellAnything with Thaly.ai