Momentum

I get why everyone needs a therapist.

More than 75% of my friends go to therapy and more than half of those friends identify as founders. Life is a roller coaster. Most of us don’t learn how to stomach the drops - especially when we grow up getting participation medals and being told we’re special.

I was warned that leaving the corporate world won’t be sunshine and roses. There’s going to be dozens of ups and downs, daily. But the magic of all this journey is being brave (and ignorant) enough to take the leap and having the courage to figure it out as you go.

Last week was one of those weeks. I went from “we’re so fucked” to “we’re so fucking back.” I’m running two projects at once, doing whatever I can to slow down my bank account balance from going to zero. Some days I wake up thinking “this is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done, I can’t believe I’m doing this” to “holy shit this is working.” All within 12 hours.

The two best solutions I have found to breaking that emotional cycle are:

1. Surrounding myself with a group of friends doing the same thing as me.

2. Pushing through the bullshit and keeping momentum.

My friend Liz put it best: “95% of being an entrepreneur is pushing through bullshit. Over and over again.” The bullshit won’t go away, but once you push through hard enough you’ll gain enough momentum.

When you get that momentum, you push even harder.

It feels like I am just now getting momentum with what I’m doing with both Plunge Party and [REDACTED] (will share more project 2 soon). Yesterday, I was overlooking a space of 125 people that took time out of their Sunday to jump in cold water and meet strangers. After each of the first six plunge parties, I was physically and emotionally drained for the following 48 hours. I was running this alone. I had friends help out in the beginning, and without them I would not be where I am now, but it still felt like pushing a boulder up a hill.

After each and every event, I was tired, exhausted, down hundreds of dollars, and posting silly reels on an Instagram account to try to show what these events were all about. I wanted to quit after each one. Then I met Devin at an event that wasn’t supposed to happen. She offered to help out with social media. She went above and beyond that and helped run some of the show. Then we grew again. I was pushing us to start hosting every other weekend. I just sold my car. She had a new job, a boyfriend, and a life to manage.

After the first “every other weekend” event (which was our biggest yet) she looked at me and said “we can’t do all of this ourselves” as we were mopping up my friend’s backyard. Later that night, I got a text from Gargi Kand…

One week later, Gargi joined the team. After that event, Ishan Dhawan reached out about hosting Plunge Party at Wefunder. Now Wefunder is our biggest venue (so far) and Ishan has opened up deal flow for dozens of potential Plunge Party partners. One week after our first Wefunder event, Ishan joined the team. Plunge Party has four team members, brand power, and the attention of big companies in the wellness space.

We have momentum.

It’s way more fun to build something with friends instead of doing it alone. Every time we gain momentum for Plunge Party we run into a new puddle of bull-shit. If I didn’t push through all the bull-shit every time it came up, I wouldn’t have a team I’m genuinely excited to work with.

Once you have momentum, keep pushing.

It won’t guarantee smooth sailing. But it gives you speed — and that’s everything when you’re pushing through mud.

Keep pushing. You might surprise yourself with how great the other side is.

You’re Awesome,

Jared

Things Worth Clicking

A few gems I found on the internet this week - no digging required

• Justin Mares exposing another “healthy” protein bar that's not actually that good for you.

• A cool graph on how to solve a problem using first principles

  How to solve any problem with first principles

  swipefile.com/how-to-solve-any-problem-with-first-principles

  

• How to email anyone if you want to get their attention

I Dig So You Don’t Have To

1 Set:

2 IDs:

Gentlemen’s Agreement 🤝🏻

I need a favor from you. Every week I spend several hours crafting this email to give you entirely for free. Banger, after banger. Except it’s not actually free.

I love doing this, but I also love seeing this grow (You might say I’m flawed. But you’re not my therapist). To keep this free it would mean the world to me, and my ego, if you shared this with just 1 person who you think would also like this.

They can subscribe using this link here 🙌🏻