Borski

I’m 23 years old. I have a girlfriend, but no mortgage, no kids, and not very much debt. Still, I’m scared out of my wits to quit a job and start trying to strike out on my own. Why? Furniture.

There is the physical furniture, of course; that which you sit on, sleep on, eat on, etc. I have a lot of physical furniture, but these are things that can be bought and sold. The bigger question is that of the metaphorical furniture that I don’t want to become. At MIT there were many different types of people, but the majority could be classified into two groups: the doer’s and the non-doer’s; the movers and the furniture, if you will.

Furniture takes up space but is essentially immobile. It generally doesn’t tend to do much except be used. Movers are action people; they move furniture around, rearrange them, reorganize, build new furniture, etc. My entire life, I’ve been a mover. I was always restless, never content, always pushing to do more and be better. Whenever I saw myself becoming furniture; that is, whenever I found it easier to watch TV than actually work on something people would enjoy, I would do whatever I could to fix it. That’s exactly what I’m doing now.

I’m currently employed in a position very few people are lucky enough to attain; the work is great, the people around me are brilliant, and the reason we do the work we do is meaningful. And yet, it isn’t fulfilling. After much whiteboarding and flowcharting, I think I’ve figured out why: I’m not learning anything. The things I came here to learn are not the things I’m getting out of it right now. That said, I have nothing but the highest of praise for the team; anyone would be lucky to work with such a group of brilliant minds. It just isn’t fulfilling, because I’m not learning as much as I’d like, and I find myself becoming furniture more and more. Everyday it becomes harder and harder to wake up in the morning and go to work. It’s begun feeling like a job.

So as a result, I’m resigning at the end of February to work on some side projects. Do I know exactly what I’m going to work on yet? No. But I have some ideas, and that’s where every company starts; working on things people want. I’ve been saying I’m going to start a company again for years, but I haven’t actually done it, because my job was pretty fulfilling. Now that it is no longer, the stars are aligning.

With that in mind, I’ve begun this blog. I foresee it chronicling a journey, if you will, of one man’s ascents and descents in this crazy world of entrepreneurship and self-sufficiency. Hopefully I don’t bore you to death, and hopefully this serves as a decent introduction to how I think and what I’ll be thinking about.

Feel free to get in touch; I’m always in the mood for meeting someone new. Maybe we can even get together, hack on some stuff, and learn.