I Quit My Job at the Start of the Pandemic to Launch a Company

Polina Marinova’s first-90-days account of going independent in March 2020. The honest part is the motivation: “the raw, ferocious motivation that kicks in when you realize you need to pay your bills.” Four revenue lines — subscriptions, advertising, a licensing deal, freelance writing — because diversification mitigates the risk.

Notes

• Over the next two weeks, I had to face the uncomfortable reality that the world was about to change in a serious way. Businesses were shuttering, people were losing their jobs, and the whole country was in collective shock. It felt like my deepest fears had materialized overnight.
• Depending on who you ask, it’s either the worst time or the best time to start a business. I don’t know the answer to that. What I do know is that even in the middle of all this chaos and uncertainty, I still had confidence in my decision. Here’s why: At Fortune, I wrote about entrepreneurship. At The Profile, I’m living it.
• But here’s what you’re unlikely to account for: The raw, ferocious motivation that kicks in when you realize you need to pay your bills. I’m working harder and longer than I’ve ever worked before, but I’m also on track to make more money this year than I have at any salaried job in my career.
• So far, I’ve made money from 1) direct subscriptions, 2) advertising, 3) a licensing deal, and 4) freelance writing. Diversification mitigates the risk of losing any single source of money all at once. Yes, it’s a lot of work, but as Malcolm Gladwell says, “Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning.”
• James Clear recently tweeted, “You can attract luck simply by telling people what you are working on.”
• For example, The Profile’s mission is to learn from the most interesting people and companies. So when I say I’ve read thousands of profiles, I need to be able to back that up.
• There’s a saying that goes, “Show me your closest friends, and I’ll show you the future.”
• As an entrepreneur, you may not have colleagues in the beginning, so you need to become part of communities of like-minded people who can help you brainstorm, get fresh ideas, and stay in the loop. Community
• Since I started The Profile three years ago, I have never missed a single week. That means that for the last 176 Sundays, readers have been able to trust that this damn newsletter will be in their inbox no matter what’s going on in the world. Even a global pandemic couldn’t stop it.
• Love Is Blind. Tiger King. Keeping Up With the Kardashians. It’s easy to fall into a spiral of consuming what I call “junk food content,” which plunges you into crazy thought patterns and anxious feelings. A year ago, I made a conscious decision to elevate the content I was consuming, and it had a tremendous effect on my mental state. Content Consumption
• We claim we invest in our health, but we neglect our content diet. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” Create an environment that facilitates falling into intellectual rabbit holes.
• In this life, we only have two choices: create or imitate. Starting The Profile was the most honest and original thing I’ve done, but it hasn’t always been easy — and that’s normal.
• “You’ll feel like for the first time in your life that you’re doing something for somebody else,” he writes. “That it’s not all about you. And your narcissism will start to wane.” Ryan Leaf Service
• Start a newsletter, a passion project, or a new venture that lets you tie your identity to something that actually matters — your own name. Nothing is more liberating.