Michael

There are days when I can do absolutely nothing.

Not because I don’t have time — but because I lack the energy.

Even the smallest tasks, like replying to an email, feel heavy. Every action demands more than I have to give.

It’s not burnout, exactly. It’s more like my mind hasn’t recovered. My body might be fine, but my head isn’t there.

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In my younger years, I would force myself to push through it.
I thought that was discipline — being tough, staying on track no matter what.

But it’s not discipline. It’s denial.

Because in life, there are things that drain our energy and things that restore it. The real discipline is in knowing which is which.

Everyone needs energy to function, especially if you’re trying to perform at a high level. You can have all the time in the world, but if you don’t have the energy, nothing moves.

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So what should you do when you have no energy?
Simple: do things that help you restore it.

For me, that’s writing. It’s my way of thinking clearly — a way to rebuild mental order when everything feels scattered.
When I write, my thoughts realign. And slowly, energy comes back.

For someone else, that might be cooking.
Or making tea.
Or spending time with people who refill your tank instead of draining it.

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Time isn’t an absolute thing.
It only matters when it’s paired with leverage and energy.
That’s when you see progress.

Until then, it’s okay to pause — and let yourself come back to life.

The being is not a philosophy.
It’s not something you think about or debate.

It’s a state of mind.

It’s doing the first thing that pops into your head — without hesitation, without second-guessing. Just do.

A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. You don’t get progress from thinking, and you don’t get clarity from waiting for the perfect moment.

Clarity comes through action.
Action squashes anxiety.
Action moves the needle.

You might say, “What if it’s just a thought with no action required?”
Then write it down.

A thought not recorded is nothing. Writing gives it form, and form gives it space to become something later.

That’s what being is — not theory, not philosophy, but practice.
Doing what arises. Writing what matters.
No overthinking, no delay.

Just being.

When I was in my early 20s, I believed that passion was the single most important factor in choosing a career. I thought:

• If I work in an area I love, I’ll stay motivated.
• Even if it doesn’t pay well, I’ll figure it out.
• And if I make it to the “top” of the industry, I’ll be fine.

My passion was sports. I wasn’t an athlete, but I wanted to work in the sports industry. I was willing to grind it out, even working for free to get experience—just like countless others trying to break in.

What I didn’t realize back then was that passion alone isn’t enough. There are other forces that shape your career trajectory—forces that are much bigger than your own motivation. Over time, I came to understand three of them: geography, competition, and value creation.

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The Geography Factor

Where you work matters more than I ever imagined. Certain industries are highly concentrated in just a handful of cities. Sports is one of them—there are only so many teams, league offices, and opportunities.

And this goes the same for other industries too. Tech has Silicon Valley. Finance has New York and London. These hubs create dense ecosystems of opportunity. I wasn’t in any of those cities—and that alone limited my options, no matter how passionate or capable I was.

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The Competition Factor

I underestimated the difficulty of making it to the top. Sports attracts young, passionate people who are willing to work for free just for a chance. The supply of labor is endless, and the demand is limited. That imbalance keeps pay low, even for higher-level positions.

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The Value Creation Factor

This was my biggest realization.

In sports, the core value is created by athletes. Without NBA players, there is no NBA. That’s why they earn unbelievable salaries. League office staff and executives add value, but they’re not the reason fans buy tickets or tune in to watch. Even top roles at the league office pay a fraction of what you might expect.

I remember seeing a job posting for a director-level position at the NFL league office. The salary? $100,000–$160,000. Sounds decent, until you compare it with other industries.

A Palantir engineer intern makes about $120,000.
A Jane Street engineer intern makes $250,000.

At first, I thought: that’s just tech and finance vs. sports. Different industries, different economics. But then it hit me: those engineers are part of the core value creation in their companies.

Palantir is a software company. Without engineers, it doesn’t exist. Jane Street is a quantitative trading firm. Without technologists and quants building the algorithms, there’s no business.

In other words, engineers in those firms are the equivalent of NFL players. They’re the ones driving the value engine.

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A Story That Stuck With Me

Dharmesh Shah, CTO and cofounder of HubSpot, once told a story that hammered this point home for me. Early in his career, he worked as a tech in a traditional industry. He quickly became the best at what he did. But a senior colleague told him: “It won’t matter how good you are in this industry because tech isn’t the main value driver here.”

That was a wake-up call for him—and it became one for me too.

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The Big Lesson

If you want outsized returns in your career, it’s not enough to be good. You need to be good at something that sits at the core of value creation in your industry.

• In sports, that’s being an athlete.
• In tech, that’s being an engineer or founder.
• In finance, that’s being a trader, quant, or engineer.
• In healthcare, that’s being a physician or innovator.
• In entertainment, that’s being the artist or creator.

Everyone else can still have fulfilling careers, but the leverage—and the money—will always flow to the core.

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Looking Back, Looking Forward

If I could go back to my 20s, I wouldn’t tell myself to abandon passion. Passion matters. It keeps you going when things get tough. But I would tell myself this:

“Make sure your passion intersects with value creation. That’s where you’ll find both meaning and upside.”

That’s the framework I carry with me now—whether I’m evaluating industries, jobs, or even side projects. And it’s the one piece of advice I’d give to anyone just starting out.

Growing up, I was told a lot of things — mostly by adults, mostly my parents.

They were bound by their own experiences, the experiences that shaped the lives they live today.

But looking back, I see now that many of these lessons were just fears.
Their fears reflected onto my life.

And slowly, I started to believe them.

• You have to be great at math to work in tech.
• You can only go so far in another country because you’re not a citizen.

Maybe some of these statements were true in certain contexts. But I took them as universal truths, without questioning, without research.

As I grew older, the list of these inherited “truths” kept piling up.

It wasn’t until I passed the age of 35 that I realized most of them were just mindsets, not realities.

They’re like tiny shackles on an elephant’s leg — placed there when it was young, so it grew up believing it couldn’t break free.

Looking back, I can see how many of my decisions—or failures to decide—were shaped by these invisible chains.

Here’s the truth: they are not real.

You can find paths in this world that no one has traveled before.
Whether you actually reach the destination is irrelevant.
The only thing that matters is that you take the first step… and keep walking.

That’s all that matters.