I run a company that's doing well. If we sold today, I'd likely walk away with $3–4 million, and at 29, that would be life-changing money for me. But despite the success, I'm struggling as we grow. I feel stuck and, honestly, a bit hopeless.
For so long, my goal was to build something valuable and be successful. Now that I’m achieving it, I’m starting to realize I might have been chasing the wrong things. Along the way, I met someone who profoundly impacted my life, but we broke up for reasons outside of our control. I don’t know if we’ll ever find our way back to each other, or if she was simply meant to be a chapter in my story. Either way, her presence in my life made me start to question what truly matters.
I still have the drive to succeed, but I’m beginning to see that there’s more to life than just being "a founder." It feels like I’ve outgrown parts of my life, including some of my friendships, which now seem rooted in immaturity. The one thing I thought would bring me joy—building this company—has instead left me reflecting on the parts of my youth I missed out on. Ironically, it’s made me feel more lonely as I struggle to move past the person I used to be. Part of me even wants to just walk away.
I guess, in short: has anyone ever felt like they accomplished their professional goals only to realize they were focused on the wrong things? I don’t regret the choices I’ve made or the journey I’ve been on—I understand that life is about enjoying the journey, not just reaching the destination. But now, I find myself asking: what do I do next?
TL:DR, At 29, I’ve built a successful company, but I feel unfulfilled and unsure if I’ve been chasing the wrong goals. Has anyone else hit their professional targets and felt lost? What’s next?
The main causality I'm seeing here is that the uber-wealthy are clinging to their money like a crack addict to their next fix. Specifically by often paying their employees the absolute bare minimum they can, based on the circumstances. The result is that, to achieve basic financial independence, most people need to spend a herculean effort, often along lines that aren't in line with their fundamental aspirations, and which might not even succeed
And since this wealth disparity is an issue we take for granted, we often grow up learning to think of "being wealthy" as the root of all human aspirations, when in fact all that can do is satisfy only a person's most basic of basic needs
Hence we don't learn how to find what our true aspirations in life are, and hence if we do achieve financial independence, we often feel something is missing
An example of this can be learned from the book by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, "An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States" where she talks about how, before the Genocide dessimated their societies and cultures, the indigenous peoples had a lot more time for recreation, ceremony, and arts than the europeans did. This tells me their economies were more efficient, probably because they didn't have the ever expanding greed of an elite class to satisfy
This would open people up to exploring their true aspirations beyond survival
In my personal experience, at some point I suddenly felt the need to become a mental health counselor. Eventually I started studying neuroscience through MIT lectures on youtube. I honestly cannot describe how enthralling that was. It wasn't something that would get me rich. It was just fascinating and eye opening, and something that could probably lead me on a path of doing basic research in the future that would, who knows, help homeless drug addicts, especially those who are victims of systemic racism
So in the future, I think I need to focus on stuff like that more