You exited.
No more fundraising. No need to justify your value.
More urgency. No more fighting.
And that's precisely where you start to go soft.
Comfort kills instinct. Calm destroys ambition.
And you, you are no longer hungry. You're drowsy.
If you want to become dangerous again, sharp, able to crush standards like on day one... then you're going to have to reactivate the useful tension. The one that got you there in the first place.
Here's how:
1. Recreate the tension. Deliberately.
A post-exit entrepreneur is like a sprinter who's been taken off the starting line.
What's missing? Vital pressure.
Not suffering. The tension. The tension that makes you come alive.
Recreate it. By force.
- Launch a project that's bigger than yourself.
- Set a course that scares you.
- Expose yourself to criticism, loss of face and rejection.
If you don't risk anything, you won't feel anything.
2. Accept your hypomanic nature
Studies confirm it: you're different.
- Less need for sleep
- A constant need for challenge
- Vulnerability to boredom, emptiness, inaction
You're a mental border collie.
If you don't run, you'll eat your own paw.
Stop fighting your fire. Channel it:
- Projects you're obsessed with
- Measurable, visible results
- A brutal but deliberate pace
You need a plan. And a stopwatch.
3. Reimpose a military structure
The problem after an exit is not that you no longer have any customers, employees or partners.
It's not having a frame anymore.
Recreate your own:
- Strict morning routine
- Engraved weekly objectives
- Daily monitoring of energy, impact and progress
Even your weekends have to be strictly organized.
The mind sharpens with effort.
4. Cleanse your body to reactivate your mind
What you sometimes feel - mental fog, apathy, laziness - may come from biological imbalances you've been ignoring.
Test your neurotransmitters. Your hormone levels. Your thyroid. Your sleepII. The psychological.
You're not tired. You're out of control.
Correct:
- Strict diet (no more sugar)
- Sleep
- Supplements if required
- Exposure to light + movement every day
To become dangerous again is first to become clear.
Fog never made good generals.
5. Turn off everything that anaesthetizes you
Just because you've won doesn't mean you have to accept everything.
Some things kill your edge:
- People who tell you that you've "earned a break"...
- Warm environments
- Tepid projects
- Lukewarm discussions
Radicalize the people around you.
Talk to those who are still hungry.
Work with those who want to build an empire, not just "scaling a feature".
Be surrounded by people who are more ambitious than you.
6. Regain your taste for combat
You're an inner warrior. Not a pensioner.
Go back to what has always defined you:
- Intensity
- The action
In short: gentrification is the enemy
Not money.
Not success.
Soft acceptance of what is.
To become dangerous again is to refuse anesthesia.
It's to choose life again as an arena.
If you want to be proud of yourself tomorrow, start tonight.
And may your alarm clock tomorrow be a wartime alarm.