Don't re-invent the wheel in 2023

I am seeing lots of folks "re-inventing themselves" for 2023. Nothing wrong with a midlife crisis once in a while, but doing so repeatedly tends to have toxic effects.

"2023 will be super different for my business because this time, I will do X, Y and Z. Nothing like last year."

I've been in business for the past decade, and I've thought this way too, especially in my first year. I thought that changing my whole strategy for next year would make me win more. The opposite was true. I started seeing success by following my last year's plan + adding/testing a couple of new elements for the new year.

It's more like: "I was on track last year, and maybe this next year, experiment A2 and B9 need to go. Next year, I will test out experiment C12, D5 and Z1." You don't ever want to kill your whole last year plan, unless you are very novice at business/strategy.

The effect of killing last year's strat would be to start from 0mph, when you've finished last year at 65mph. Re-inventing yourself has a deep cost. And I see lots of folks re-inventing themselves every year, but for the past 5 years.

This also begs the question: why wait a year to re-invent yourself? Sure, society's in change mode at this time around, but you could re-invent yourself 365 times last year... daily, weekly or monthly. Deploy more experiments, faster.

Usually, folks that need to re-invent themselves yearly are prone to society's opinion and movements. Sure, ride the wave, AI's gonna be big this year, but after riding the web3 wave, the nft wave and the crypto wave, don't you want a longer term project?

Find your true purpose/values, one core mission, and base the rest of your life's action on that one. You'll see, you'll get way more momentum + you'll start to compound points.

In my case, in the last decade, this has been sales, mindset, startups and health. I'll still be riding these mounts in 80 years from now. They are all themes that, if mastered, may yield exponential effects in one's life. NFT's? I'm all about art, but that one seemed over-inflated by groupthink. I'm an independent thinker.

Point made, 2023 will be a very strong year for vets that have been compounding their thesis since a while. We long term folks aren't scared about 2023 as a) we've been accumulating time/energy on key focus areas that are monetizing more and more day after day and b) we think long term, meaning we withstand short term storms, mostly caused by unstable herd reactors.

Think longer. Stop restarting the machine cold and constantly following the pack. Experiment and yes, ride waves, as part of your strategy, but have a guiding light that will take you to shore, now and 60 years from now.

May 2023 be a year of patience: deliberate strategies + disciplined actions.