Revival

This has been a long way coming. But I am finally going back to where I left.

Ok, technically I never left but there was a wave of things coming my way that needed attention. And I could not foresee the variance in the last 6 months heading my way.

Cancer

I only mentioned it once or twice (on X or in a blog post) but my wife had cancer in a stage that was very treatable. Nonetheless, that came with a shock and it took so much from her and me that we just decided to go for it.

This discovery and treatment was already going during the Million Dollar Challenge but she encouraged me to keep going and not slow down.

But it still came with a cost. (more on that later)

The good news is: There was a week I announced I went ‘dark’ in the sense that I wanted to re-organize myself for the better to make some final sprints for the end of the year.

And that week (this week) was meant to go with her to the hospital for a minor surgery and definitive result of her cancer.

Whilst I ended up in the hospital myself this week for something so utterly awkward and painful, the weight of our shoulders fell off.

The doctors gave us the result: my wife is now officially cancer-free.

The moment she heard the results I saw the relief. It took me a second longer since my traditional Chinese in medical terms is bad. But I could already see how the room lit up.

I had an immediate flashback of how this year went and how many hits we took in the last 6 months to just survive physically.

Behind the scenes

Here’s what most people don’t know during this period:

• On average I slept 25 hours a week in total
• She stayed the majority of the time in the hospital to run tests and she’s sensitive which required monitoring
• I went from hospital to home, overnight back to hospital (awake to work) and went back in the morning picking up calls and rushed through tasks before going back to the hospital
• Took only naps during those periods of max 3 hours per block but had an average of 50 hours without sleep
• Had to take care of my mother-in-law that had an accident and was undergoing surgery
• Had to save one of our friends and their family that lost their home during an earthquake
• Took about 480 Uber rides in total to finish this marathon
• Started the Million Dollar Challenge which is currently at $80K USD since August 2023
• Threw one MacBook Air through my living room and broke it, because I was utterly frustrated and stressed during certain periods when nothing was going my way. Went to the store and replaced it the next hour
• The bank account where all cash from the MDC was deposited (including some extra liquidity) at a high pace got frozen and I was forced to move it. But that just added a level of stress and it took me a week to solve it
• Missed 4 appointments booked or scheduled for a call during this period
• Deleted by accident a Google account / Drive. Which I can probably blame by being too tired
• Broke an iPhone that was used as a hammer to place a dent in my desk. Yet again out of frustration and high levels of stress. Went back to the store to get a new one.
• Had to deal with this ridiculous poker saga for more than a week where I bought up the debt, which at this moment none has been paid back even though he said he would pay me end of September
• Broke an Apple mouse, because — frustration and levels of stress at the time I was supposed to be at the hospital for her but I had to go back home to fix an internal corporate issue
• Missed to acquire a project where I sent in an LOI but I never completed it because I totally missed it
• Flew two times to Hong Kong, and came back the same day. With one back and forth going straight to Taipei and go straight to the hospital in the morning to make it on time to accompany my wife for upcoming surgery on her throat.
• And probably a dozen other things I missed

Decompress

The first thing that came into mind was to just decompress and let it all go.

I need some sleep and rest as in proper rest. The problem is, I can’t.

There are way too many people waiting for me and way too many people that currently rely on updates from my side.

One part of my brain says that I should not give two fucks about it.

The other part says: Let’s prioritize and re-assess the urgencies everyone has. Because lots of them also pay for a service (such as consulting, LaunchPad, or Studio etc) and it’s not their concern what happens in my personal life.

I stated that before that I would only shift unless my house is on fire. And it’s currently not.

But I am not bulletproof.

Yet, I believe that a few days of decompressing will be the better choice so I can balance my inner self and organize myself much better at 3 times the pace.

Because mistakes were made

Mistakes

I made a few critical errors or mistakes in the last 6 months, especially the last month. And that’s unforgivable from a business POV.

But, I am going to rectify those as soon as the new week starts (from October 23rd?).

Limits

Everyone has their limits and I reached mine the last few months.

My headspace was filled with different topics that pushed out rationality. But now that I know what those limits are, I can take bigger hits if needed and extend those limits in case something happens again at this scale at the same time.

In 17 years, this is the first time I truly felt variance is beating the shit out of me with elements that are much harder to control.

It made me think how push new boundaries and build in contingencies for the next rollercoaster.

But now that the entire saga came to an end, the future looks a lot more bright:

What’s next?

Well, I can finally pick up where I left and here’s what’s going to happen:

• Pick up the MDC again at a normal pace
• Finally pull the trigger on the acquisitions for the MDC
• Pick up the pace again for people in LaunchPad, FocusX, Society and people that hired me under the MDC
• Finish Solsika with Kris. It’s a SaaS platform that will go in BETA launch soon
• Going back to what I do best: Day trading and equities
• Building a content library for FocusX & LaunchPad
• Clean up my docs
• Set different times on availability for calls
• Expand uselessnewsletter.com
• Be active again in my own Discord channel Land of Oos
• Start with Wall Street Bust
• Finalize and finish this website (OOSHQ)
• …..

What I learned

I need to stop breaking shit I guess?

I see you all back in full in a few days!