You have to bet on yourself

I was setting myself up for life at 17 years old with an SAT prep company. $50k/mo and an almost guaranteed path to $100k/mo+ within 3-4 months with ~50% profit margins. Split amongst my three co-founders, that's ~$17k/mo - $204k/year salary. It was very reasonable we would double within the next year, as we had just got started. By 19, i'd probably be making ~$500k salary. I left, though, because that was nothing to me.

I left it all to get into tech. What was missing in SAT prep and education was in technology: more impact on humanity, higher TAM, and exponential curves. SAT prep and current education systems will likely crumble due to technology. 50%+ of modern institutions likely will. So why sit back and watch. If you've ever seen the Nerve movie, i'm reminded by the constant choice: "Do you want to be a watcher, or a player?". I've always been a player.

At 18 I got a job in San Francisco at a YC-backed Startup called Corgi Insurance to break into tech. By the time you're reading this (given you're looking back to old blog posts of mine), they're either a leading insurance carrier or completely crumbled under poor leadership. I was offered ~120k guaranteed salary at 18. But I was in growth. I knew I was good at growing companies, though, and didn't want to waste time doing something I already knew. I wanted to learn. And when the company declined my constant asks to teach me to learn to code, I quit.

Currently, I'm sitting with $120 in my bank account at a public co-working space. I turned down offer after offer to learn how to code because I am betting that this skill will make me more than the other offers combined.

My family thought I was crazy for quitting both. Friends wonder why I left. I question it myself every day. But logically, it all makes sense.

People always say "they're betting on themselves", but it really isn't that much of a bet if it logically makes sense and you commit to execution. I would like to say I am "betting on myself", but I know for a fact I will build a larger company by quitting these things to pursue something greater. There is just a year in between leaving and making real progress or money. And i'm okay with looking stupid for a year if the impact is a net greater impact on humanity.

I've just uploaded my first app to the app store. I am betting I will hit $11k this month. I am also betting $50k the month after. Then $200k the month after that. Is my product that good? No. But it will improve. I will improve. And even if I failed, I would regret not trying.

The people who looked at me like crazy will wonder why my growth is exponential within the next 6 months.

The game has only just begun.

Remember, nothing belongs to you. So do the coolest possible shit you can think of.