“When you find yourself in hell, just keep going”

When was the last time you were truly tested? When the future is uncertain & you feel like resources are low. Energy is low, patience is thin, bank accounts are draining to zero & you get tempted to think of other ways forward.

Altering your direction.

How do you keep going? People like to say “remember why you started” which is pretty cool on its own but what does that really mean? Let’s make it a little more practical.

Remember when you started? You knew that your “thing” wasn’t going to be easy, but you had your reasons why. You knew there would be challenges & you knew it would be hard - it’s a great reminder to simply remember that you CHOSE to do the hard thing.

You already KNEW that 80% of businesses fail in the first 2 years & then another half of those who remain fail in the next 5.

You decided the journey would be worth it & in fact, the harder it is & the longer you can outlast everyone else - the more valuable it becomes. It becomes difficult to follow you.

Nov-Feb was the hardest 3 months of running TCS over the last 3.5 years

We were running out of cash, my co-founders health required time away, I didn’t feel like I had any ways out & I was questioning everything I was doing.

Bare in mind before starting TCS I had a really solid consulting business that gave me financial / time / location / relationship & creative freedoms that I truly enjoyed.

The opportunity to be at the forefront of this ongoing technological revolution was too exciting to ignore - I closed down a wonderfully successful & mostly automated business to do this. Had I really fucked up?

What if everything burned to the ground & I had to get a job / move back to Sydney / fail to provide for my partner & have to leave behind the life we’re building here, all our friends & interests.

It was harder than anything else i’ve come across in business

I questioned everything

I ALMOST wanted to throw in the towel - thats when Bella stepped in.

The Woman standing in front of me, who’s stood beside me with everything we’ve done together since we met 4 years ago asked me a simple question.

“Has your thesis changed? Do you still believe the idea has value”

YES!

“Then you can’t give up, not unless the thesis is proven untrue - if theres demand for this in the market (and there is) then we MUST keep going”

So, I re-committed & man am I glad I did. EVERYTHING finally shifted in March. The sales pipeline re-ignited, the advisors we always wished for joined in the fun, the partners we’d dreamt about signed deals & everything we’d been feeling stuck on seemed to finally shift to meaningful progress.

In fact, we’ve even moved homes - we’re paying 28% less & we’ve got far more space & it’s such a great fit. Friends who’ve visited have immediately commented “oh, this suits you guys SO much better”

All this to say

If you’re going through hell? Just keep fucking going.

It really helps to look back at how far you’ve come, I’ve recently picked up a practice of writing letters to my younger self & reading it from the mindset I had back then.

One of the most powerful ones was to my 20 year old self - a decade ago. Convinced that everything I needed was external from me. It made me cry just a little bit, some grief, some joy, some relief & a whole lot of love.

I didn’t always love myself, in fact.. once upon a time I was the LAST on my list of things that deserved my love & attention. Now? I get better & better at loving myself first every single day in every single way. (if I say it enough, it seems to work 😛 )

Cool investment deals on my table right now

Reach out if any of them interest you

• giving users the ability to own their own purchasing data & retain the value usually sold by companies like amazon - all those advertising dollars can now go to YOU the consumer!
  This team has won 4/4 hackathons so far this year & are having a fantastic time signing great investors (we’ve got allocations as they are members of TCS & have LOVED all the support we’ve given them so far)

• think dall-e but for adult content, founding parters are long time friends & business partners with track records of success that span as long as their careers. True A players, having fun & meeting a need. Strong MVP & strong organic growth so far with clear monetisation plans

• think miro.. but with multi-modal AI support & the ability for users to sell their data / templates & IP. Also a winner of the recent ICP hackathon in Bali

• Gorgeous 3 unit, 12 bedroom development in the heart of Berawa Bali (the highest cash flowing destination in Bali right now) Really solid build with great rental history. Suitable for rich family, as an investment property or to be converted into a commercial play. Very high quality build with simple yet timeless designs. ($1.6M ask) projected ROI’s would have your money back within 5-6 years.

As always, Thanks for reading.

If you’ve been needing someone in your corner, say hey :)

P.S - we’ve been hard at work getting ready for our 3rd annual destination experience for tech teams & superstars. Check out the trailer here