this answer may be insensitive but i always keep it real. my current challenge is figuring out how to spend more time studying than working, while also making more money. i am not willing to sacrifice one for the other.

here are a few systems i'm building to achieve my goal.

personal assistant

i resisted this for a long time. my internal conflict was silly. on one hand i know smart, rich people who swear by "having help." on the other hand i know smart, rich people who would never consider an assistant. but this means the second group spends hours paying bills, responding to emails, and keeping companies compliant every month. i hate all this crap. so i hired an assistant, recorded ~30 videos of daily, weekly, and monthly tasks i wanted off my plate, and she's absolutely amazing. total gamechanger to my day to day calendar.

distributed ownership

last month i implemented OKRs, a simple goal setting framework, at all Fork Equity portfolio companies. by assigning 1 person to one OKR (objective and key results), i can basically leave them alone for weeks at a time and still expect great work. this also means they leave me alone for a few weeks at a time, so i can do great work. win-win.

apathy

i used to care about replying to every email and direct message and comment and request from every stranger, quickly + competently. now i do none of these things. through auto replies, my assistant, the free FAQ platform you're reading right now, and an increasingly "shrug, who cares?" attitude, i do less mind-numbing and time-sucking stuff than ever before. another way to describe apathy is focus.

profit first

this system is inspired by a book with the same name. it's normal for entrepreneurs to defer profit and personal paydays to an arbitrary future date. but the author reminds us that profit is not a destination, it is a behavior. and it should happen every day. over the last ~14 months i've consistently cut our companies' burn rate every single month. this means profit increases even if revenue decreases. following each down month we've thus stabilized with a smaller, leaner team and toolbelt. it's like playing Jenga. if our portfolio revenue reduced by ~70% today, i'd still make more $$ than this time last year.

diversification

i don't believe anything is truly "difficult" but i will say tech startups are comparatively more difficult to succeed at than, say, an online course. there is always someone trying to eat your lunch. with this simple realization i've begun pivoting my skillset to focus on long-term revenue generating machines like content, SEO, books, and real estate. these ventures do not require managing teams of specialists, nor do you have to answer support tickets or squash bugs at 3am. they are also more immune to being cloned by loser digital nomads.

conclusion

i understand some people have bigger challenges in their life. i'm very lucky to be more concerned with how well my steak is cooked. but if i'm dishonest with readers, my biggest pain point would be myself: a fake asshole.

and guess what. champagne problems are still problems. the difference between goodness and greatness may be in solving your "good" problems. stay hard.