I just want to watch the sunset... every day

“Microblogging pills” (MBP) are short posts containing random thoughts that cross my mind. Without necessarily any context or story behind them, raw and unedited.

Tomorrow is Monday. The beginning of another week. When I was an employee, before quitting my 9 to 5 job, I hated Sunday afternoons. I would always end up in a bad mood, dreading the beginning of a new dull and stressful week.

The latest weeks have been so stressful that I have started to feel that “weekend is coming to an end” anxiety. It’s not just the sheer amount of work. Being a CEO is hard enough, but if you are fundraising and you don’t have a COO to prevent you from getting involved in the operational stuff… Sometimes it is just too much. Lately, I am just happy to have a week without a crisis, a peaceful week where I can just focus on all the stuff I’ve got to do.

Well, for better or for worse, I can’t complain. I am the CEO, with everything that the position implies, both good and bad.

Just Sitting There, Watching The Sunset…

So when I started to feel the anxiety growing inside of me today, I decided to go for a walk. I wandered through the beautiful Lisbon port promenade and ended up in the stairs in front of the Maat museum. There, I sat down, played some quiet music on my headphones, and focused on the beautiful scene unfolding before my eyes as the sun set.

The Tagus river, so big and powerful at its mouth.

The vast 25th of April Bridge, so monumental, the cars passing by, small like a flow of moving dots, and the trains crossing paths beneath them.

The ships moving gracefully against the wind, the birds flying high above me.

… Every Day.

Soon enough, I started to feel at ease. And I thought about the frenzy of our hyperconnected lives nowadays. About Netflix, the VC world, the cars, traffic jams, and road rage, the people who watch videos at 1.5x or even 2x, the FOMO, the social media, the notifications fighting for your attention inside your pocket, the 52 books I am supposed to be reading every year to be a good CEO, and about all that stuff.

And all I could think was how could someone may be missing that wonderful sunset.

Some people want to be rich to drive a Maserati, or a Tesla. They want to have a big house with more rooms and bathrooms than people. They want to travel the world, live the party life, carpe all that diem.

I just want to have the privilege of enjoying the sunset every day of my life.