After a week and a half back on the east coast, I’m back to SF. I had a pretty good meeting tonight with one of my buddies, Norm. He asked me a couple of hard questions—things that made me really think why I’m here. It kind of caught me off guard.
If you weren’t working on your current project, what would you be doing right now?
It’s kind of interesting that he asked me this. When I first started this project, it was something on the side. It’s definitely something that I enjoy doing, but he really wanted me to think about what I’d be working on if I wasn’t tied to any project. Would I really be working on this on my own?
He said, there are plenty of people in SF looking for projects to work on, but very few are extremely passionate about doing something that they’re genuinely moved by. I think the answer is that I definitely want to learn more about this space—it’s something that I’ve been really curious about, and I want to learn the ins and outs of early stage companies. I also want to give a stab at a consumer facing product right now. But, the reality is that I probably wouldn’t have come up with this mission on my own.
Anyway, his point was that when you have your own mission and personal passion behind something, it motivates other people. He said, that gravity inspires people, and it’s how projects get funded. I’m not sure how much of that is true, but it definitely sounds romantic and appealing.
If I read between the lines, he wanted me to think about the future. What’s the next project after this, and can it be something that can be closer to my heart? How can I think bigger and take things to the next level? Can I take Expa to the next level?
I have a couple of ideas, but I think the point was, I have to keep thinking about those things—the next side project.
Anyway, I have a lot to think about. There’s a ton to do—first step is to get this stealth project out of stealth mode. Then I can start thinking about the next big thing… even if the next thing starts off as a small side project.