Memory is unreliable.
So I’d be lying if I said I knew exactly how it happened.
But at some point during the final couple years of my university degree, I became fascinated with the world of startups.
I went to a couple talks. One by LP Maurice from Busbud, who I’d get to know better later. One from a startup developing fitness monitors built into clothing.
I also went to an event called Startup Open House. It was the first event that year, but it would grow to other cities.
I toured some offices and spoke with some founders. I saw the newly-opened Shopify office—in hindsight, I should have applied there…
But there was a book which led me into that world as well—The 4-Hour Workweek.
I’d followed Tim Ferriss for some time. His posts about fitness and diet had intrigued me, and I’d read The 4-Hour Body.
The book is ultimately about divorcing your income and your time. Finding ways to generate income that don’t depend only on the time you put in.
It’s also about testing fast. Figuring out ways to gauge interest in startup or product ideas without spending huge amounts of time or money.
I’d go on to read a lot more books about startups. The Lean Startup, Disciplined Entrepreneurship—they all preach data-driven, iterative approaches to building startups.
But The 4-Hour Workweek was the book that propelled me into that world.
And divorcing my income and time is a goal I’m still pursuing to this day.
