Today I turn 40 years old.
Kind of an odd-feeling thing to write out and have staring back at me. It’s something I’ve been looking up at my whole life and now it’s finally here. I’m not big on celebrating my own birthday, but this is an important one. I’m going to honor it. And despite the limiting circumstances we’re all facing right now, I’m going to enjoy it. Needless to say, my day is going to look very different from what we originally planned. We’re not on the beach in Mexico. And that’s ok. I’m right where I need to be.
I like to use these occasions to reflect back. Boy, was my life different a decade ago. I was single, childless, and living in a small apartment in San Francisco. I was an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank—still a few years away from working in tech and startups, which is where most people in my professional life know me from. We were coming out of the Great Recession and I had a front row seat to our nation’s response. That feels like another lifetime ago. I was starting to wake up from a fun, but at times wasteful decade of my 20s. I was on the cusp of some big changes, but they hadn’t arrived yet. I didn’t have a lot of money, but I did have a lot of freedom. I was happy.
Flash forward to today: I’m married with two kids. I have a dog. I’ve grown and sold my own business once and am in the process of building a new one for someone else for the third time. I still do research, but not as often as I should. I also build products, advise clients, and work with entrepreneurs—through advice, mentorship, and investment. I’m about to publish a book with a co-author who has become a dear friend and mentor. I’m deeply grateful for both. I have great colleagues that I get to work on important problems with. I spent half of my last decade in London, which will always be a home to me. I now recognize that writing is my art. It needs to be a bigger part of what I do.
On the other side of things, I’m balder, grayer, and rounder. My back hurts. I have very little time to do what I want, when I want. The demands on my time are growing. I don’t see my close friends and family enough. I’m tired all the time but somehow I get things done. I lost my meditation practice and some discipline along the way. I’ve made some money and lost a bunch too. I’m both more and less accomplished than I guess I thought I’d be, though that’s never been a focus of mine—I’m still just looking for interesting things to do, and more importantly, interesting people to do them with. I’ve always been driven by curiosity.
My life is really good. I’m grateful for the last decade of learning, living, laughing, and loving. I’m super optimistic about the next ten years. I don’t feel old. I feel young. Forty is the new 30. I’m a late bloomer anyway—I’m just getting started. I genuinely wouldn’t change a thing about my life, even the uncomfortable parts. I don’t know what’s next but I do know that change is already upon me—change is inevitable and constant. I’m ready for it, but I’m also content. I hope everyone out there reading this is feeling content too. May your next 10 be better than your last. I know my last 10 were, and although it’s hard to imagine right now, my next 10 will be too. ✌️♥️
(Some new additions from the last ten years ⤵️)
