What My Life Is Like After Running A Successful Business For 7 Years
Summary
TLDRIn this video, the speaker reflects on seven years of running their business, AlgoExpert, which helps software engineers prepare for technical interviews. They discuss the evolution from working tirelessly during the early years to now having greater time and freedom as the business operates more independently. While they appreciate the benefits of flexibility and autonomy, they also note challenges such as maintaining discipline and dealing with unexpected boredom. The speaker emphasizes the importance of health, discipline, and self-reflection in managing both business success and personal well-being.
Takeaways
- 🌅 The video is filmed in a new location in Punta Mita, Mexico, with a beautiful sunset in the background.
- 💼 The creator has been running a business called Algo Expert since 2017, helping software engineers prepare for technical interviews.
- 💻 In the early years, the creator worked tirelessly, balancing a full-time job at Google and Facebook while building the business.
- 🚀 The business has grown significantly over the past seven years, reaching a stage where it is almost self-operational and on autopilot.
- ⏳ Over the last two years, the creator has gained significant time and freedom due to the business's maturity, leading to more personal time.
- 😌 The creator discusses the paradox of freedom: while there is no longer a boss, they feel 'chained' to the business and its responsibilities.
- 🛌 With more free time, the creator has struggled with maintaining discipline, experiencing challenges like irregular sleep and diet habits.
- 😔 Unlimited freedom has also led to unexpected boredom, despite having the ability to do anything with their time.
- 🧘 The creator emphasizes the importance of maintaining health—physical, mental, and emotional—now that they have the freedom to focus on it.
- 👫 The creator mentions the support system provided by their girlfriend, who helps maintain discipline and a healthy lifestyle.
Q & A
What is the purpose of the video?
-The purpose of the video is to share the creator's personal experiences and reflections on running their business, AlgoExpert, for seven years. They discuss the changes in their life and business over this period, as well as the pros and cons of having more time and freedom now.
What is AlgoExpert and what does it do?
-AlgoExpert is a company that helps software engineers prepare for technical interviews. It provides resources and tools to support individuals in their preparation process.
How has the creator's life changed since starting AlgoExpert?
-Initially, the creator was working non-stop, balancing a full-time job and the startup. After the business grew, they left their full-time job and focused entirely on AlgoExpert. Over the past two years, as the business reached maturity, they gained more time and freedom, resulting in a significant change in lifestyle.
What are the pros of having a successful business as described by the creator?
-The main pros are having a lot of time and freedom. The business now operates almost on autopilot, allowing the creator to enjoy flexibility and the ability to do what they want without having to ask for permission or feel guilty.
What are some of the cons associated with this newfound freedom?
-The cons include a loss of discipline and the need for self-regulation. Without structured obligations, it can be challenging to maintain discipline, leading to issues like irregular sleep patterns. Additionally, boredom can set in as the initial excitement of unlimited free time fades.
How did the creator's work habits change over the years?
-During the first few years, the creator worked non-stop, often sacrificing sleep and personal time. After leaving full-time employment and focusing solely on AlgoExpert, they continued to work intensely for several more years. Recently, with the business running more smoothly, they have shifted to a more balanced lifestyle with more personal time.
What advice does the creator give to those aspiring to run their own business?
-The creator advises aspiring business owners to be aware of the challenges that come with having a lot of time and freedom, such as maintaining self-discipline and avoiding boredom. They also emphasize the importance of not sacrificing too much health in pursuit of success, as regaining lost health is difficult.
How has the creator been utilizing their newfound time and freedom?
-The creator has been focusing on improving their health, including physical fitness and diet. They have been more consistent with going to the gym and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, which they previously sacrificed during the intense early years of building the business.
What challenges did the creator face when transitioning to a life with more freedom?
-The creator faced challenges in adjusting to having more time, including feelings of guilt and a struggle to find new purpose and meaning in life. They had to train themselves not to feel guilty about taking vacations or enjoying their freedom, and they are still exploring ways to fill their time meaningfully.
What are some tips the creator suggests for maintaining health while running a business?
-The creator suggests not sacrificing too much health for the sake of the business. They recommend maintaining a healthy work-life balance, focusing on good sleep, diet, and regular exercise, and not neglecting personal well-being even during the busiest times.
Outlines
🌅 Reflecting on 7 Years of Business Success
The speaker introduces the video as a reflective conversation on their life after running a business, AlgoExpert, for seven years. Set in a scenic location in Punita, Mexico, they mention the stark contrast to their usual videos. AlgoExpert, a company that helps software engineers prepare for technical interviews, has grown significantly since its founding in 2017. The speaker discusses how the first years of business were intense, balancing a full-time job at Google and Facebook while working non-stop on AlgoExpert. However, as the business matured, life became less hectic, leading to greater time freedom.
⛓️ The Paradox of Freedom in Business
The speaker dives into the paradox of freedom when running a business. While initially, freedom from bosses was liberating, over time, they felt 'chained' to their own business, clients, and responsibilities. As AlgoExpert matured and became more self-operational, they regained this freedom, finding joy in having the ability to do whatever they wanted without guilt. However, they note that training oneself to not feel guilty when taking time off was a process, and balancing personal and business responsibilities was a key challenge.
📅 Discipline and the Burden of Unlimited Time
With time and freedom come new challenges. The speaker explains that the loss of imposed discipline—such as needing to wake up early for a job—creates a burden to self-regulate. Without external structures, it’s easy to fall into unhealthy patterns, such as staying up late or forgetting to maintain basic routines like eating properly. They emphasize the importance of self-discipline to prevent life from spiraling out of control when there are no immediate responsibilities.
😩 The Irony of Boredom Amid Unlimited Freedom
The speaker addresses the unexpected challenge of boredom that comes with unlimited time and freedom. Initially, having time off feels exciting, but over time, activities like watching movies or reading books can become unfulfilling. This leads to a sense of guilt, as they feel that they shouldn’t be bored with all the time and opportunities they have. The speaker reflects on how their previous work at AlgoExpert provided meaning and purpose, and now they are searching for new ways to find fulfillment beyond work.
💪 The Pursuit of Health and Self-Discipline
The speaker touches on the positive side of having more time, which is the ability to focus on health—both physical and mental. They admit that during the early years of AlgoExpert, they sacrificed sleep, diet, and exercise to build the business. Now, with more time, they are prioritizing their health, going to the gym, and eating well. They also mention the role their girlfriend plays in supporting their discipline. The speaker advises viewers to be careful about sacrificing health for success, as it’s harder to regain once lost.
🏋️♂️ Balancing Success and Health
In their closing thoughts, the speaker reflects on how health is often sacrificed for success and urges viewers to maintain a balance. They stress the importance of self-discipline when it comes to physical and mental health, sharing that they are now in the best shape of their life due to consistent efforts. They advise viewers not to trade too much of their health for business success, as it's a harder currency to regain. They conclude the video by showing the beautiful sunset in their location and inviting viewers to engage with the video.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Time Freedom
💡Self-Discipline
💡Autopilot
💡AlgoExpert
💡Maturity
💡Burnout
💡Health Sacrifice
💡Purpose
💡Guilt
💡Boredom
Highlights
Introduction to video: Sharing life after running a business for seven years.
Business overview: AlgoExpert, a platform for software engineers to prepare for technical interviews.
Discusses the early challenges of managing a full-time job at Google and Facebook while building AlgoExpert.
Highlights the relentless work ethic required in the first few years, including long hours and personal sacrifices.
Transition to full-time entrepreneurship: Quit full-time jobs and focused solely on growing AlgoExpert.
Emphasizes how the business became self-sustaining after five years, with less hands-on involvement required.
Mentions newfound time freedom due to the business's operational maturity.
Reflects on the paradox of freedom as an entrepreneur—free from bosses but tied to the demands of the business.
Acknowledges the importance of self-discipline in managing newfound freedom and time.
Shares the challenge of maintaining discipline and structure without external obligations.
Discusses feelings of boredom that come with having too much free time, despite having unlimited freedom.
Reflects on finding purpose outside of work as a critical aspect of personal fulfillment.
Stresses the importance of balancing health, particularly physical health, with business pursuits.
Advises entrepreneurs to avoid sacrificing too much health for business success.
Concludes by encouraging viewers to reflect on their own purpose, self-discipline, and health in pursuit of business goals.
Transcripts
what's up everybody how's it going in
this video I'm going to tell you what my
life is like after running my business
for seven years now quick disclaimer
this video is going to be very different
from my typical videos because I am in a
completely different location as you
might see from this jungle and from the
ocean behind me and this gorgeous sunset
right here I am in beautiful punita
Mexico and I figured that I would just
grab my cell phone and have a sort of
stream of Consciousness conversation
with you guys to share some of these
thoughts that I've been having so if
you're new here I've been running my own
business called algo expert for uh over
seven years now since February 2017 algo
expert is a company that helps software
Engineers prepare for technical
interviews we've done very well for
ourselves we've grown tremendously since
I uh created the business back in
2017 and over the course of these seven
years my life has changed dramatically
uh you know during the first few years
of running the business as a lot of my
uh old viewers know I was working like
247 you know I was it was constantly
working non-stop and when I started the
business I was uh also having a
full-time job as a software engineer at
Google then at Facebook for like over
two years and so I was juggling that and
running algo expert so is really
non-stop like very little sleep
sacrificing a lot and then when uh we
quit our full-time jobs and went
full-time on algo expert for the
following let's say three years so you
know about five years of the business it
was still like work work work non-stop
you know grow at all costs really try to
like make it so to speak and uh make it
we did kind of and so now over the these
last 2 years look at this beautiful
sunset you see it let me try to focus on
it it is absolutely gorgeous and I'm
I've been doing a a time lapse here uh
I'll probably show the time lapse in the
video on my other phone it's absolutely
gorgeous and in the video it doesn't
quite
capture how orange and like bright this
sun is anyway I divate so um over the
last couple years my life has really
changed and I'm talking about because of
the business and the the the stage that
the business has uh reached so you know
like I said during these first five
years it was like go go go all the time
and then we kind of reached maturity the
business became much more um like self
operational uh kind of almost like an
autopilot things became way easier
easier to do to scale it was easier to
add products on the platform to acquire
customers and so on and so forth to the
point that I would say over the last 12
months now but really 24 months but kind
of like progressively
faster I have had more and more and more
and more time freedom and and less of a
requirement to work constantly
and uh in this video that's what I want
to talk about like the kind of pros and
cons the pros might seem obvious of that
the cons not so much the pros and cons
of you know having run a successful
business for seven years and reaching
this stage so what are the pros well the
two most obvious Pros are time and
freedom I am at a point now in the
business's life where I have a lot of
time dare I say like almost unlimited
time why because like I implied a few
seconds ago a few minutes ago I have
like very little work to do these days
compared to before and uh on top of this
time I have complete and utter Freedom
now to be clear I've always had freedom
ever since I quit my full-time jobs at
Google and Facebook like as soon as I
was on my own uh only working on algo
expert I wasn't reporting to anybody so
you know I had the freedom to do
whatever I wanted when I wanted I could
go to lunch when I wanted I could go to
bed when I wanted but there was still a
sort of
obligation both to myself and to the
business or the business the business's
other team members to like you know be
there you know I had to be there
I had responsibilities towards them and
towards myself and so with that came a
sort of lack of Freedom that's the weird
like uh kind of paradox when you run
your own business is that on the one
hand you have complete freedom from
other people like you don't have a boss
anymore but suddenly you realize oh wait
I'm actually like chained to my own
business I'm chained to my own self I'm
chained to my customers Etc okay however
what I'm saying now is that over the
last few
years that freedom like I have regained
that freedom purely by way of the
business reaching uh a certain level of
maturity and uh being on autopilot and
that is truly amazing like as I'm sure
many of you can imagine it's awesome to
to be able to do whatever you want
whenever you want without needing to ask
for permission and without needing to
feel guilty or anything like that now by
the way quick quick side note you have
to train yourself to not feel guilty I
remember about 2 three years ago when
things started to calm down at algo
expert and I started to realize like huh
like maybe I can go on a vacation now
maybe I can you know travel a little bit
maybe I can do XYZ I was feeling guilty
at first I was like but wait a second I
need to be constantly working like if I
if I go on vacation and I'm not working
you know am I going to let myself down
am I going to let the business down and
so that was kind of a learning curve in
and of itself but um the point of the
matter is like yes once you allow
yourself to to to take advantage of this
complete Freedom it's
awesome but this is where some of the
cons of you know having this life of
being your own boss and and having you
know unlimited time and freedom this is
when the cons start to to kind of enter
into your life and so let me try to to
to explain these conss for some of you
who who might be you know confused of
them so the first con that comes with
this life is the con of you you feel
like you you no longer have discipline
or rather you you have have a much
greater burden to be disciplined like
when you have responsibilities when you
don't have unlimited Freedom when you
don't have unlimited time you naturally
have discipline that is kind of thrown
onto
you and and that can actually be really
helpful it's like this invisible this
this burden that is actually an
invisible blessing a blessing in this
like oh you have to wake up every day to
go to work and you have to wake up every
day at 7:00 a.m. you know well there's
actually kind of a a niceness to that
there's something good about that
whereas whoops sorry whereas um you know
when you're when you're when you have
unlimited freedom to do whatever you
want and all that you have no
responsibilities you have no one to to
to cater to things can kind of spiral
out of control quickly like one day you
go to bed super late next day you wake
up super late next day you you do the
same thing next day you do the same
thing then you forget to eat but doesn't
really matter cuz you know you can catch
up on your health the next day because
you have nowhere to go and you you start
to spiral out of control really quickly
and that can be really bad and so all
that to say you need to really remind
yourself to be self-disciplined the
second thing um that comes with uh you
know unlimited time and unlimited uh
freedom is and unironically boredom and
I know this one is going to be one that
people like roll their eyes at like what
are you talking about how can you be
bored when you've got like you can do
whatever you want all day long and all
that but you know just as with
everything in life it's like
you you you kind of like crave what you
don't have so when you are uh um you
know working non-stop 24/7 never taking
vacations and all that you crave to have
seven days of vacation or seven months
of vacation or seven years of vacation
where you can do you know whatever you
want you can focus on your hobbies catch
up on shows uh read books catch up on
movies travel so on and so forth but
when you start to have that you know for
the first seven days amazing for seven
months probably still amazing but then
you know there's only so many movies you
can watch so there's only so much
YouTube you can consume there's only so
many books you can read before you start
to kind of like you know crave a bit of
a change or crave something different
and so this is something that you know
I've been really conflicted with uh over
the last let's say 6 months or so
because like yeah you you just
inevitably start to be flat out bored
you're flat out bored and you start to
once again have a feeling of guilt kind
of like the feeling of guilt I was
saying earlier of like when you're
trying to to allow yourself to go on
vacation you know after working non-stop
for so many years here it's like you you
have to you feel really guilty cuz
you're like how am I bored like I'm not
allowed to be bored when I have this
amazing perk of complete and utter
Freedom you know and yet you are bored
over the last few months I've been
really thinking okay well how can I not
be bored maybe I need to like expand my
hobbies a little bit or explore new
hobbies maybe I need to um you know
really think about finding some sort of
purpose like you know after work and I
think you know there's been this
realization of I used to find so much
purpose and meaning in my work an algo
expert
and now that is no longer like the thing
taking up all my time and attention and
so I feel like I've lost a little bit of
that purpose of that meaning and I need
to refind it and I can't say that I've
necessarily that I necessarily have
found it but I'm looking for it I'm
thinking about it more
actively and um yeah you know it's it's
not easy is it a great problem to have
yes I'm not complaining but it's not
easy you know and it's just something to
think about like if you know I guess
like one of the overarching messages
that I have with this video with this
like rant this 12 minute rant if you've
made it this far uh um I'm I'm happy
that you're listening to my rant feel
free to leave like a let's see what
emoji could you leave leave a hamburger
Emoji in the comments below to let me
know that you've made it to to this
point in the video and I will I will try
to hard it but um yeah the the main
message I I want to send here is that
like if you're someone who who maybe is
not running your own business yet uh but
who who feels like you know you you want
to because you crave that unlimited time
and freedom I'm not here to discourage
you or to tell you like oh no it's not
it's not good it's not what it's got out
to be no it's fantastic but it does come
with some you know negatives uh some
negatives that uh you have to work uh
through and that you can honestly kind
of work through already which is by way
of like doing some internal reflection
about you know what are you looking for
in life what kind of purpose like what
brings you purpose is it work is it
something else um and so on and so forth
but
uh as a final sort of closing thought
one thing that is also amazing about
having like so much time and freedom but
that you know it goes back to the
self-discipline of like you have to
actually make use of it is you can
really focus on your health um and here
you know I'm talking mental health
physical health emotional health
spiritual health whatever um but for me
specifically I would say like physical
health during the the first few years of
algo expert um it was so easy to
sacrifice kind of everything above like
algo expert came first above everything
else and so I sacrificed sleep sleep was
the worst I sacrificed you know my diet
like I was eating like garbage all the
time um I was skipping the gym a lot
even though like I love the gym and I
used to never skip the gym and so now
over the last year or so I've really
really really really been trying to stay
self-disciplined um and focus on these
things like focus on my health you know
focus on my sleep like I have zero
excuse to not sleep well when when I
have so much time and so much freedom I
have zero excuse to skip the gym and so
now these days I'm super happy I've been
back at the gym like super consistently
I'm the strongest I've been like ever um
I've been bulking a lot which is what
I've been wanting to do um I've been
eating super well and of course it helps
to have like a support system I've got
an amazing girlfriend who's uh you know
super helpful like to keep me
disciplined and keep me motivated and
keep me you know we go to the gym
together we um you know she like wakes
me up on time keeps me on a good
schedule um Cooks great food and all
that but uh yeah Health super important
and uh something that like I truly have
no excuse use to to skip out on and
honestly it's like it's probably the the
biggest piece of advice that I would
give for anybody who's not quite at this
sort of unlimited time unlimited Freedom
point but who's like working towards
there is be careful how much of your
health you sacrifice to get here because
um like I've always said this before
health is a currency you can trade it
right like I traded some of my health
for uh some of algo experts success and
some of my you know current success to
get to where I'm at in life but at what
cost you know uh health is kind of the
you know it's more the unidirectional
thing than a bidirectional thing it's
harder to gain back Health that you've
spent and so um yeah just be wary of
that and uh if you do get to a point
where you have lots of time lots of
Freedom focusing on your health and
trying to be really self-disciplined to
focus on your health is going to be
super
important anyway listen this is uh my
rant this is my stream of Consciousness
rant um hopefully if you've made it this
far you found some value out of it and
uh let me know if you did let me know
what your thoughts are and I will see
you in the next video look at this
beautiful
[Music]
sunset look at this the sky
is all orange and like
yellow and the Sun is right behind the
water Horizon here all right see you
guys for
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