TDLR: Moved to Bangkok, had a second son, failed to sell CryptoWeekly, found product-market fit at GrowthList, had lots of fun in Japan
We moved back to Bangkok at the beginning of the year to have our second child at the same hospital (and with the same doctor) we had our first child at in Bangkok. It was a smart move as the hospital and doctor are both first class. All things went really well and we welcomed little Oscar into the world at the beginning of April – which was easily the highlight of the year.
During this time we put my older boy into a great pre-school which he has really enjoyed. The initial goal was to let him finish before moving back to Europe, but sadly the pollution in Bangkok is getting worse – to a point where it’s affecting our health, and thus we have decided to leave early. The next few months will be busy with another big move.
In other personal news, I stopped smoking cigarettes after smoking a box per day since I was 14. It feels amazing to finally get rid of this nasty habit. Alan Carr’s ‘How to Stop Smoking‘ book really helped.
I quit Facebook and got rid of my iPhone and use phones/tablets way less than I did before. With less screen time on all my devices now, I have way more time to dedicate to my family which has been fantastic.
I also rediscovered fasting and now fast for 16 hours most days of the week, and try to fit in a few 24-hour fasts per month. This not only helps with weight control but also clarity of the mind.
So all in all, I feel I’ve made huge progress on my health and where I spend my time this year.
Work
I spent the first few months of the year trying to find someone to take over CryptoWeekly without success. I am now in the process of going out again to try and find a company that can take it over.
From day one I started CW to learn how crypto works, but now I feel I’ve learned as much as I can, I want to pass it onto someone else with more enthusiasm. CW makes decent money via sponsorships and CryptoList sales, so I’m eager to watch someone take CW to the next level.
As outlined in my 2018 review, I wanted to focus 2019 on building GrowthList up after neglecting it for a few years, and that is exactly what I did.
I tried multiple variations of the product (in startup world these are called pivots); from selling limited quantities of smaller lists to selling unlimited quantities of bigger lists – and nothing really stuck.
In total, I launched 26 new reports without much success (i.e – success in where I could support a family of 4) and 3 months ago I decided to try one last product variation before calling it a day.
I ‘pivoted’ GrowthList to offer a report of every startup that is getting funded right now, priced at just $49 (previously these reports cost $299 each). So far growth has been great and I’m so glad all this testing has finally paid off. GrowthList is where I’ll spend my efforts for the foreseeable future.
I also launched a few side projects earlier in the year that I have since paused while I focus all my efforts on GrowthList. These included Cosana, NewKeys and DailyNames.
Travel
Traveling with my boy who is getting older is so much more fun, and as we didn’t travel as much this year thanks to pregnancy and school schedules, we plan to do a lot more of it in 2020.
Trips this year included some Thai beach time, a few family visits to Ubon, a great time in Hong Kong and 2 separate trips to Japan; Osaka and Sapporo.
Goals for 2020
I completed all my goals from last year apart from starting a podcast – which I still want to do and will make this a goal for 2020.
I’m not going to add any new goals this year as I’m at a point in my life where I’m pretty happy doing what I’m doing. I enjoy updating GrowthList, I enjoy spending lots of time with my kids, and I enjoy traveling. Lot’s more of those and I’m one happy guy!
