About a week after making the jump to go out on my own and start building Unreal, I had a conversation with my mentor, Wil, over dinner.
I was anxious all day for this meeting because I was worried that I didn’t have a good answer to, “What are you going to do?” (I wrote about this on May 4)
But that wasn’t the case.
Wil recommended that I don’t force “figuring out what I want to do.”
“Look, most people don’t have the foresight to give themselves the opportunity to do what makes them happy.
I spend a lot of time in San Francisco, and I meet a lot of founders and people who are making millions of dollars with their company, but they still don’t know what makes them happy. You don’t have to know what it is you want to do. In fact, you haven’t had the life experiences yet to truly know what you want to do.
What if you were completely transparent about the fact that you didn’t know what you wanted? If your drivers are to be happy and make enough money to live the life you want, you can figure that out.”
He went on to recommend that I gather other data points. Spend a month living in other cities to understand different cultures and the perspective of people elsewhere. How do I know I truly want to be in Columbus?
I’m excited to kick off this exploration today. As you read this, my plane is taking off for Los Angeles where I will spend almost the entire rest of the month. I’m lucky to be able to work remotely, and I plan to exercise that privilege over the coming months.
I’ve never truly been on the West Coast. I want to know what the weather is like, the vibe, and the lifestyle. I want to meet people who move to Los Angeles with the intention of getting into music and entertainment. What do people talk about out here?
Maybe I’ll be entirely underwhelmed. But, I’m excited to find out.