Respected members of the BHW community,
Six years of grinding built me a cushion. One retail business burned through half of it in under two years.
I've made peace with that. But it changed how I think about what comes next, and that's what I want to talk through with you.
A bit of background. For six years my work was a group of SaaS products under one umbrella. I was the operator: I ran the day to day, kept the systems alive, and did the strategic thinking about where it was all headed. It was profitable. It also stopped growing me. I'd settled so deep into the comfort zone that I couldn't feel the edges of it anymore, and walking away started to feel less like a risk and more like the only honest move. So I left.
Here's the part I didn't expect. Leaving felt like the hard part. It wasn't.
I took what those six years earned me and spread it around: real estate, the stock market, crypto, and a couple of businesses. The passive investments are steady. But one of the businesses, a brick and mortar retail play, has been brutal. Maybe I was too fresh in that market. The fixed costs are too high, the sales don't cover them, and I've decided not to feed it anymore. Whatever the final number is, it's roughly half of what those six years gave me. I've accepted it. I can't control everything, and I'm not writing this for sympathy.
I'm writing it because of where it leaves me.
I have runway. The passive investments are fine, though they don't throw off income I can live on, so the next thing does matter. I'm not rushing. Or rather, I'm rushing slowly: moving with intent, but refusing to bet on the wrong thing just to be moving.
The problem is choosing.
My first business was my passion. I genuinely loved what I did. Now? Nothing really pulls me. Every path looks "great" on paper, and that's exactly the trouble. The retail business looked great on paper too. I have enough runway to try almost anything, AI is reshuffling the whole deck every few months, and so I freeze. Too many doors, no instinct telling me which one is mine.
So my questions to the people who've actually built something lasting:
I don't have a money problem right now. I have a choosing problem. When you found the thing that worked, how did you know? How did you tell the difference between a niche that genuinely fit you and one that was just a good opportunity on paper?
And from where you sit today, with everything changing this fast: what do you see as the genuinely good paths right now for someone who's technical, comfortable running systems and operations, and wants to build something he can run remotely and scale slowly over time?
I've spent six years learning how to operate something well. I'd like the next decade to be about building something that's mine, deliberately, and not waking up five years in having sleepwalked into another comfort zone.
I read the Journeys here often. The honesty in them is why I'm asking in my own words rather than lurking. If any of this resonates, whether you want to reply in the thread or talk more directly, I'd genuinely value it.
If any more details would be of help to give better advice, do not hesitate to ask. I will try to give as much as possible without giving out too much.
Six years of grinding built me a cushion. One retail business burned through half of it in under two years.
I've made peace with that. But it changed how I think about what comes next, and that's what I want to talk through with you.
A bit of background. For six years my work was a group of SaaS products under one umbrella. I was the operator: I ran the day to day, kept the systems alive, and did the strategic thinking about where it was all headed. It was profitable. It also stopped growing me. I'd settled so deep into the comfort zone that I couldn't feel the edges of it anymore, and walking away started to feel less like a risk and more like the only honest move. So I left.
Here's the part I didn't expect. Leaving felt like the hard part. It wasn't.
I took what those six years earned me and spread it around: real estate, the stock market, crypto, and a couple of businesses. The passive investments are steady. But one of the businesses, a brick and mortar retail play, has been brutal. Maybe I was too fresh in that market. The fixed costs are too high, the sales don't cover them, and I've decided not to feed it anymore. Whatever the final number is, it's roughly half of what those six years gave me. I've accepted it. I can't control everything, and I'm not writing this for sympathy.
I'm writing it because of where it leaves me.
I have runway. The passive investments are fine, though they don't throw off income I can live on, so the next thing does matter. I'm not rushing. Or rather, I'm rushing slowly: moving with intent, but refusing to bet on the wrong thing just to be moving.
The problem is choosing.
My first business was my passion. I genuinely loved what I did. Now? Nothing really pulls me. Every path looks "great" on paper, and that's exactly the trouble. The retail business looked great on paper too. I have enough runway to try almost anything, AI is reshuffling the whole deck every few months, and so I freeze. Too many doors, no instinct telling me which one is mine.
So my questions to the people who've actually built something lasting:
I don't have a money problem right now. I have a choosing problem. When you found the thing that worked, how did you know? How did you tell the difference between a niche that genuinely fit you and one that was just a good opportunity on paper?
And from where you sit today, with everything changing this fast: what do you see as the genuinely good paths right now for someone who's technical, comfortable running systems and operations, and wants to build something he can run remotely and scale slowly over time?
I've spent six years learning how to operate something well. I'd like the next decade to be about building something that's mine, deliberately, and not waking up five years in having sleepwalked into another comfort zone.
I read the Journeys here often. The honesty in them is why I'm asking in my own words rather than lurking. If any of this resonates, whether you want to reply in the thread or talk more directly, I'd genuinely value it.
If any more details would be of help to give better advice, do not hesitate to ask. I will try to give as much as possible without giving out too much.
