Last year was great for us. But the reality is never so nice and shiny as it appears in a highlight reel.
In this article, I’ll share with you 7 things that didn’t go so well for us in 2021. This time I’ll try to be more concise in my writing.
While I could give you a positive spin on each item, I’ve decided not to do that. Sometimes, things just suck… and that’s okay.
Ghosts are real
I get it. Replying to messages is hard.
You have more important things to do. You forget. Or maybe I didn’t write something nice to you.
Getting a straight “No” doesn’t feel good. The ego gets hurt.
But getting absolutely nothing after multiple emails, a zoom call, and a few reminders? I don’t get it.
I think I’d rather hear “You’re an idiot!” than complete dead silence. And this didn’t happen just once.
The award goes to…
… not me.
If there was an award for the best instructor in localization, I probably wouldn’t even be nominated!
There were many students who hopefully learned something and maybe even had fun. But there were few who got completely crushed by me.
“Arrogant”. “Not supportive”. This is some of the feedback I got from a few people.
I simply don’t have the patience to deal with anyone. If you’re struggling with things that are basic for me, you’re going to get the green man (except that I don’t get taller and grow big muscles).
I get frustrated. Angry. I say bad things. And probably make you feel stupid.
Ups and downs
One day you get 7 subscribers, the next day someone unsubscribes. The first time I saw a negative number in the analytics, I felt like I’m doing something wrong.
There are days when I can work the whole day, be in the zone, and go to bed satisfied that I did something great. There are also days when I hate my work. And instead of working, I binge-watch some stupid series while eating a lot of junk food. Total loss of discipline and motivation.
Not to mention many days where I couldn’t sleep well or I simply felt bad for not doing what I should be.
The rollercoaster ride is kind of expected when starting a company, but honestly — that’s just life. I don’t think people who work have it differently.
Can’t let go
The problem of learning and doing everything?
You have expectations of how things should be done. I want others to do a better job than me.
And that is very tough for most people. I’ll always find that one little thing I would have done better. Everything has to be according to my standards because I’m the smartest guy in the room.
I know that it’s not a way to scale if everything is dependent on me. But I still haven’t figured out the balance between letting go and tolerating sloppiness.
Story of my life. I’m a difficult person to work with.
The real effort
Some time ago, I made a tutorial video about tracking every minute of your life. Just so that you don’t complain about “not having enough time” without knowing how you really spend your time.
I still do it and so I do have the data. Although I sometimes feel like I’m working from morning till evening, including Saturdays and Sundays, the numbers don’t lie.
I started calculating the real time spent on Localization Academy from week 3 of 2021. The result — I rarely go over 40 hours, many weeks I worked less than 40 hrs net.
I’m a big fan of Elon Musk and people who are dedicated to something in general. I don’t mind putting in the hours. But the reality of the numbers struck me a bit.
I thought I could do at least 60 hrs a week since “I’m on the mission to fix the education system”. But I didn’t. Who am I kidding? Am I really committed?
It’s not all fun
If you’ve seen my Toggl tutorial, you’d know that I organize my tasks into a few buckets.
There are tasks that are important for the future. Then there are tasks that I enjoy doing. And finally, there’s the dream category of tasks that I enjoy and they’re working towards my future.
Going back to my stats from 2021, I spent 1310 hours working on something that’s only good for the future. I didn’t enjoy it that much.
While I think that we should all aim to create a life where we do things that are both fun and valuable, the path to this is not only “fun”. There’s a lot of grinding it out.
Full of BS
Our mission is to fix the education system. Make student loans obsolete.
From what we did in 2021, this statement looks like a total pose.
There we are, selling courses and doing some bootcamps for companies. Where’s the dent in the universe?
In order to shake the system a bit, we have to catch youngsters before they even commit to uni and show them localization and project management. How many teenagers did I inspire in 2021?
Zero.
