Creating an Idea Book
Meeting new people will inspire new ideas
Using an Idea Book to Get out of a Rut
Lately, I’ve been feeling like there is something missing that I want to be doing with my time. This is partly due to the work from home lifestyle taking a toll and the monotony that comes with it. I’m sure I’m not the only person who has felt this way.
This feeling has translated into me languishing throughout my days and wasting time scrolling on my phone.
Becoming aware of my own stagnation, has made me want to add something into my life. Particularly, something that I can work on and build. A goal I can strive for.
I got the advice from my girlfriend Elana to start an idea book where I can start to write down all the ideas I have for things I could work on.
I started a new page in my personal written journal and titled it “Idea Book”. So far, I’ve written down three things. Originally, one of the ideas was more like a to-do. For example, it was to create my own holding company to start to do my own SPVS so I could invest in private companies.
While this is something I would like to do, it’s really just filing paperwork. I needed to turn it into a goal by stating that through this new LLC that I create, I would then raise and invest in one private company. Now this is a goal I can strive for over a period of time with a clear end result. It’s actually something I could fail at which Elana defined as a key criteria item for being in an idea book.
In addition to an idea being something you could fail at, a good idea should be able to be started today in which you can quickly see progress.
I am my happiest when I have a lot of side projects going on at once. It keeps my mind engaged and I love seeing multiple “pieces” move in my life at once.
Perhaps before I can come up with an idea that feels worth working on, it might help to do an audit of the current time usage in my life to see where their is white space for a new goal to fit in.
Life Audit
My full time job is at a biotech startup called eGenesis doing investor relations where I’ve helped raise $225M and worked closely with the management team to build the company. I was employee 20 and we are now at over 100.
This role dovetailed nicely into my work doing business development at HyperGuap with my friend Gali. Since joining HyperGuap in April 2021, we’ve raised and deployed over $7M in capital into some incredibly exciting early stage companies. This has been one of the highlights of my life over the last few months.
To start January 2021, I’ve launched my Substack and began to publicly share the things I’ve been thinking about online.
I’ve developed a great workout routine going to DMN8 HIIT workouts on the beach about 4 days a week.
On a personal level, I’ve established a great friend group in LA and continued to grow my relationship with Elana.
At a random cadence, I will listen to various podcasts, books and YouTube videos to learn about a wide range of topics including investing and global history.
Lastly, I continue to invest in stocks, crypto, private companies, and NFTs.
This exercise is helping me visualize the different aspects of my life and to identify what I may be missing.
As I read through the bullets above, I think I miss meeting new interesting people. Meeting new people allows me to get exposed to new ideas. This inspires me and motivates me to do more!
I just signed up for Lunch Club which is a professional networking app. It feels a bit unauthentic but I am open to trying it.
I also have a meeting with a venture capitalist named Ari this week which came from an introduction by my mentor Will. Continuing to meet new people through warm connections is also something I want to ramp up.
Identifying an Idea
But while meeting new people is one thing that I want to systematically add into my life, it’s not really something that I can build and work on.
I am pleased that this post has illuminated the need for me to meet more interesting people, but I am aware that there is something else that I know is still missing.
I’ll continue to write down in my idea book and review my life audit to become more self-aware and track my progress. Hopefully as I meet more new people and have conversations, it helps spark some ideas.
If you’ve ever felt the urge to build something, I’d love to hear how you dealt with it.
If you haven’t already, subscribe to my newsletter to see how I work through developing my idea journal and then building something.
Lastly, I encourage anyone to conduct a brief life audit of your time and see where you might want to add or substract. You might find it helpful to visualize.