Embrace ‘Nothing’. ?It Could Become Everything.

I had it all thought out… I knew EXACTLY what I was going to do to get 1% Better today — I was going to go home this evening, and update a user menu.?

But I’ll save that for another day.

I had an interruption in my plans today… a GOOD interruption…. A post by Derek Tan , whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting on LinkedIn.

He wrote this great post about how “Doing nothing is one of the best thing to 'do’.” (Link)

It sparked a really important reflection for me.?

1% Better is — To Embrace Nothing

And now — it’s an idea that I’m going to meditate over this evening… to think it through… thoroughly… to define a principle a principle for myself, which I will aim to abide by — That is, to embrace nothing.?

To learn / seek — to embrace nothing.

Now what do I mean by that?

I recall two distinct moments in my life when I was faced with the prospect of having nothing to do, for an indefinite period of time.? I listed them in my Jan 2024 Re-introduction Post here.

The first time, was after I sold my first start-up — and had completed a term with our acquirer.? I was done with work, and took a family holiday to a beach resort — with the intention of trying what Tim Ferriss calls a ‘mini-retirement’.?

Massive failure.?

On Day One of that ‘retirement’, I met an artist at the resort.? We chatted.? And I immediately got to work on building another company.? Raised close to a million dollars in seed funding within a couple of months, headed back to the Valley, and dove into “everything”.

Now — I’m going to compress about 2 years of fun, exhilaration, pain, and struggle — into four words…

It didn’t work out.

I’m grateful for sure — for the journey, and the friendship that I formed with my co-founder, team, people in the accelerator program we were in, and for the lessons learned.

But I could not help but wonder...

... what if I had embraced the prospect of ‘doing nothing’ for a while… instead of diving headfirst into the first idea that I got excited about… What if I allowed myself to not do anything, until enough time passed.? Great ideas… as they say… are those that withstand the test of time.

The second moment in my life — was right after many pivots… and after a party in Singapore breached an agreement (story for another day), abruptly causing our start-up to stall, and eventually wind down.

It was then that I — not by choice, but by circumstance — had to embrace ‘nothing’.? Nothing to work on.? No startup to call ‘mine’.? Nothing in the works.? Nothing in the pipeline.

I was in Melbourne, Australia then.? My second child had just been born.? And it was then, that I decided — it’s time to take a sabbatical.

And for over 2 years — I had the time of my life.? I really rested.? Enjoyed time with wife, and my two children.? For possibly the first time in my life then, I discovered I had… everything.

Actions & Questions

1. Reflect deeply. Really take time to think.
2. When in your life, did you have 'nothing'; and when did it turn into 'something' for you?
3. When did you resist having 'nothing'? What happened when you resisted?
4. How would you express your personal Principle with dealing with having nothing to do; nothing to work on; just nothing...
5. Who are some people you will turn to, when you first experience that sense of 'emptiness' at having 'nothing to do'?

To recount my actions for getting “1% Better Every Day”…

1. Day One — Make a Public Commitment
2. Day Two — Set Moonshots. Kill Small Goals
3. Day Three — Raise the Stakes
4. Day Four — Plan to Fight Intelligently
5. Day Five — Write My Anti-Goals
6. Day Six — Reduce Wine Consumption
7. Day Seven — Design (and Establish) a Routine for Rest
8. Day Eight (Today) — Build an Emergency Contacts List
9. Day Nine — Make Time to Get Naked
10. Day 10 — Understand the Hard Times Growth Paradox
11. Day 11 — Stay Strategic, but... Make Time for Craft
12. Day 12 — Create a Plan to Increase Effectiveness on LinkedIn
13. Day 13 — Create an Inventory of Bottlenecks, Friction & Flow (BFF)
14. Day 14 — Screen (my phone) for Distractions
15. Day 15 — Conduct a 'Noise Audit'
16. Day 16 (Today) — Learn to Embrace 'Nothing'

Let's see what tomorrow brings...