For The Love of Fun

I came to this realization today.  The reason you should start a startup, or work at a startup is so that you have a significant influence on the amount of fun you have.  That is literally it.  I know this because I felt like I had something for the past few weeks, the holy grail of holy grailness.  Because I knew that I didn’t have everything under control, and everything was chaotic as usual (any startup that tells you otherwise is definitely lying, or probably failing) but for some reason it didn’t phase me.  I was happy. And before, when chaos ensued, it made me really unhappy.  So something had changed, but I didn’t really know what.

Then this week hit and for some reason, each day kept feeling worse and worse.  That happy high that I thought came from a combination of healthy food and excessive amounts of exercise just wasn’t doing it for me.  And the downward spiral started happening again, and it felt like right where I was a year ago.  A really terrible place.

Which is when I finally realized what I was missing.  Fun.  Not fun per say but a focus on fun, at work.  Forget about optimizing for anything else- just optimize for fun.  And when I did that, I felt fearless.  Because the results didn’t matter.  Screw everything else, screw whatever impending doom some guru somewhere in god knows what field has predicted for our company, I had already won.  I was enjoying my life.  Regardless of what happens afterwards.  It’s one of the most liberating feelings in the world.

I really think sometimes the most basic, crazy sounding things are the most effective ways to be happy.

That’s the opinion for now at least.