2020 in review
This is a quick roundup of what happened in my life this year. What I’m happy about, and what I want to do better next year.
Achievements
Work
- Made more income (from service) than all the previous years. Secured a safety net for the next 2 years.
- Built 4 new projects: a website about bags, my first iOS app, a platform for gamers and a SaaS about climate I’m about to release.
- Started getting advice and meeting new people with The Family.
- Pulled the plug on projects that couldn’t work and required customer service.
- Made a bunch of great stock investments during the Corona dip.
Life
- Bought and converted a camper van.
- Lived surrounded by good vibes and made dozens of new awesome friends.
- Although I basically haven’t attended any class for the past 2 years (mix of hacks and circumstances) I’m officially a college dropout and won’t ever have to think about it again.
- Spent 5 months and 8.000 km road-tripping by van and motorbike, visited 6 awesome countries.
- Lived in a Taoist temple in Taiwan.
- Read ~20 new books (1/2 were fiction for a change)
- Improved significantly my surfing level in the Canary Islands.
Failures
- Failed to attain 2000$ monthly profits on a project.
In retrospect, there’s nothing surprising with my mindset of building² , and this will be the focus of 2021 with Fresh and new projects.
We attained good numbers with BattleBuddy (2000+ users, +$10k revenues) and if we play our cards right, 2021 will be promising. (Or not, will be a make-or-break).
My new product, Fresh Offset (with help from Mathias @ The Family) is one of the most promising project I’ve worked on.
I’ll force myself to actually sell it, instead of pathologically switching to a new project next month.
Can’t wait to see how it does.
- Failed to become fluent in Mandarin.
Achieving conversational level in Chinese was one of my objectives for 2020.
I started studying Mandarin with a mix of apps, flashcards and watching Chinese TV shows but I hit the harsh reality on my trip to China and Taiwan: I didn’t focus on tones, and nobody understood me.
The original timeframe of getting to a conversational level in 6 months was maybe too ambitious but I’m not giving up.
I’ll keep going in 2021 and will get lessons with native speakers to actually practice real-life talking. Might try Gwoyeu Romatzyh .
I also started learning German. Learning languages is awesome.
- Failed to stay off social media
My attention got hijacked substantially this year, although it improved toward the end.
My new rule concerning social medias is 100% creation 0% consumption, but harder said that done.
Objectives for 2021
- Finally pass this 2000$ profit milestone from products.
- Change from 95/5 build-sell ratio to at least a 70/30 ratio.
- Completely remove the distraction of doing freelance/consulting: I’ll continue increasing my rate until I stop getting clients.
- Get to a conversational level in 2 new languages.
- Share more about the journey. Write more. This is hard for me but important.
- Most importantly keep having fun and being astonished by life :)
Let’s double up.
Godspeed.