WTF am I doing #4

I'm 41-years-old and I'm building a company and at some points it feels like a futile exercise. There are constant barriers you have to overcome, blockages, difficulties and points of friction. I read some research recently that indicated founders in their 40s are the most successful, they are more experienced and much better connected than those straight out of university. That gives me a lot of comfort, but building in your 40s brings with it other challenges. Entrepreneurs are a unique bread of people, when I speak to our NOAN users across industries I see the same traits - a drive to succeed, a willingness to learn and also the ability to take, and in some cases actively seek out, the personal pain involved in building a company. One thing can make that pain even harder - kids.

Being a parent is the greatest thing that has ever happened in my life, there's no doubt about it. As I try to uncover what motivated me to make this leap, I know deep down it's connected to giving my kids a better life. But building a company as a parent with young kids is no easy task and at times it can feel like they are actively out to sabotage your business. This is even more so the case in the age of remote work. Entrepreneurship is hard enough, but when you are working from home, you also have to play the role of parent at the same time, it can be overwhelming.

Throw trying to grab a surf into the mix and forget about it.

I've missed two Friday notes and barely surfed these past two weeks, both ultimately down to having to deal with sick kids (it's that time of year). The balance of parenting and building is one that I'm still trying to get right, which hours to work, when to go back upstairs from my office and spend some time with them. It's quite common to jump from an investor call to putting the baby down for a nap. These challenges are not unique to me, there are millions of people globally trying to juggle entrepreneurship with parenting. I am convinced that AI is going to enable people to have a better work life balance and it's the driving force behind why we're building NOAN .

When I listened to Sam Altman talk with Trevor Noah yesterday one quote from the OpenAI CEO struck a cord 'What does it mean if everybody gets to have a job that they love, and that they have the resources of large company or large team at their disposal... I think this is remarkable and this is a world we are heading to.'

In my mind it means a world where the building of my business is automated, where I have to make fewer decisions, create less myself and ultimately get to spend more time with the people I love and the things I like to do.

I believe we can help build that future for the millions of other entrepreneurs out there, because there is definitely a better way to get the balance that life needs and the technology is finally here to enable it.