I am writing this from Variety Coffee Roasters in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn. I am drinking a Cold Brew. It tastes amazing. 7.9/10 cold brew. This blog is probably a 6.4/10 on the serious scale, which is like 73% higher than I’m comfortable with.
The best part about being dumb and ignorant and naive is that you don’t have the wisdom to anticipate how hard or different or crazy a new thing is about to be. It’s probably my favorite part of being human. If I knew how absurd and chaotic and weird and borderline scary this past year would be, I would have never left my life behind to start a new company with my buddy Geno in New York.
And listen, I get it. I’ve been off the blog grind for a while. The unfortunate reality that you all need to figure out is that there is inverse relationship between the success of Breaking and Entering Media Company and my willingness/desire to blog. At least for now. Who woulda thought. And for those that are visual learners (Frank), here’s a diagram:
Let’s move on.
After spending almost 2 years in San Francisco and stops before and after those two years in Chicago, and now a year in New York, it is pretty clear that there is nothing in the world like New York. It’s a totally different species and it has a way of constantly keeping you in check right when you think you’ve gotten it figured out. Oh, no “fight or flight” moments on the subway? Rat in your apartment. No line for a bagel? Smelly homeless person on your stoop. Good weather outside for a walk? Motorcycle dudes revving their engine on max volume.
It’s a vicious, repeating cycle of the highest of highs to the lowest of lows. It’s not all too different from the experience running Breaking and Entering. More on that in a separate blog.
After a year, this vicious cycle teaches you that everything comes back to the average (law of averages alert! That’s TWO mathematical theories in one blog for those keeping track at home). So, you get really good at keeping calm amidst the (literal, in some cases) shit storm. And it’s not to say that you couldn’t possibly find inner calm while living somewhere else, but your inner calm becomes part of you much quicker because you get more experiences so much faster. At least that’s how it feels in my case. Or maybe im a PSYCHOPATH!!! HAHAHAHA. Side note: should I watch The Shining? I’ve always thought it was a super scary movie but it seems more like a thriller, per my tiktok feed?
By fully immersing into one of the more raucous neighborhoods, The East Village, I have smelled more smells, seen more things, and experiences more experiences in one year than a victorian child experienced in the entire duration of their 14 year existence. It’s a new normal, it’s a massive adjustment, it’s exactly what I was hoping for. “You wouldn’t last a day in the asylum they raised me.” Congratulations Taylor Swift on your engagement.
I have a theory I’m beta-testing
I think you should strive for every new year to be the craziest year of your life. I personally believe that means you did more new things than the previous year and you got out of your comfort zone more than you had in the previous year. Because what does “crazy” even mean? Outside of evil or illegal “crazy”, “crazy” for the normal person is just that you were doing a lot of different stuff. For a 27-year old fella like myself, now is the perfect time to have crazy experiences. This is it!!!! You have nothing to lose.
And that conclude the beta testing. Thank you for your participation.
Look at this visual
I feel like most people have seen this. But I think it’s cool. I feel like it encapsulates what’s happened since moving to New York. Being here makes it seem as if you can go in any direction you want and so much more opportunity is opened up to you. Deep down, it feels like that kinda played a part in Geno and I moving out here for Breaking and Entering. Just the idea that if (when) this company goes down in flames (it’ll be an epic collapse) that we would still have a good shot at landing a decent job in New York.
The trajectory of my life has completely 180’d in the last year. Reminder: I was doing risk consulting a year ago in Chicago. My life path was so clearly laid out for me. It would have been great, but it is genuinely insane that my new career path is so far gone from that it almost feels like that part of my life didn’t even happen.
In my next blog, I’m going to recap the last year of running Breaking and Entering, and how we’ve seemingly somehow started to figure it out. It’s crazy guys. I honestly have no idea how that happened. But anyways.
This year has been a year of really actually not caring about people’s perceptions of me and overall caring less about the opinions of other people that don’t really know me. In this gig, Geno and I put ourselves out there on the internet every single day. And again, similar to living in a shit storm, you get pretty immune to the idea of putting yourself out there.
I’ll also say this.
When you truly truly “go for it” (doesn’t matter what “it” is) you actually don’t have time or energy to think about what other people might think about you. Because, again, you’re too busy going for it. Then, one day, you wake up and look back and are like “damn, a lot has changed.” Then you keep going for it.
With that said, I’ll leave you all with one quote that has stuck with me this past year:
”Life isn’t about finding yourself; it’s about creating yourself.” - George Bernard Shaw, Irish Playwright
alright ya crazy kids i’ll catch ya later!!!
- jack
Great post! I really like the idea that each successive year should be crazier than the prior year!