Closing Time

One constant, in every walk of life, is this: everything ends. A job. A friendship. A relationship. Even, heartbreakingly, a life.

It’s inevitable — this will end. Yet we resist. We cling. We hold on longer than we should:

• Staying in a job that no longer fits who you are — or who you’re becoming.
• Holding onto friendships that are one-sided, quietly toxic or from another time of your life.
• Remaining in relationships where connection has faded or compatibility has slipped away.
• Keeping someone on life support — not for their sake, but to postpone your own grief.

We treat endings as failures, as losses to be avoided. But that’s a misunderstanding.

Holding on is often a refusal to accept a deeper truth: we’re not in full control.

Endings come whether we’re ready or not.

“Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man.” - Hendry Adams

So we get angry, hurt, disappointed — shocked even — when the inevitable arrives. We tell ourselves: this wasn’t fair, this wasn’t supposed to happen. But deserve ain't got nothing to do with it.

So what then?

Epictetus said: Every situation has two handles. You can grab the one that hurts, or the one that helps.

Yes — mourn the loss. Feel it fully. But also look for the new shape of life that emerges. A new rhythm. A new relationship. A new outlook. A new chapter.

That shift in perspective — from resistance to acceptance, from grief to growth — is what the Stoics called Amor Fati: the love of fate. It's not just about enduring hardship, but actively loving and finding value in all aspects of life, including challenges and suffering.

Onto the update

The Good: Growth all around, in great ways. It's been a great month overall, despite the usual summer slowdown. We continue to funnel profits into debt servicing for the business, with the goal of an extremely early pay off of some SBA financing we took on in '24. Long road to go, but still feels good.

Personally, being 100% in control my schedule has really paid off this summer. Kids going to / from camp, in-laws moving to the country and a wife in grad school means my non-work time is as stressed as my work time. So the flexibly is exactly what I was aiming for in '21 when I started this. A lot of people have jumped into ETA and holding companies wanting the flexibility but it feels good to walk the walk.

The Bad: As much as we want to bring out our AI-related product, the entire space is fast moving, immature and full of dead ends. So sadly we're still heads down on the new product and cautiously optimistic for August. Not as fast as we wanted, but as fast as possible.

Personally, I got washed in the Netrunner NYC Megacity tournament in July. Despite having only started playing in April, I decided to jump head first into competitive play, knowing I'm gonna get waxed. And I did. Amor Fati?!? But still I persist. I didn't go 1-6 ☹️ (handle 1), I won one game 😄 (handle 2)! Just a reminder to pick something up you know you'll suck at knowing that progress & improvement will come.

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end - Obligatory Semisonic Closing Time quote

If you made it this far, give me a holler and let me know what change you're making today, this week or this month to make yourself just the slightly bit happier.