You’re underestimating how much your environment is affecting your behavior
At 19, I joined the Swedish Marine Corps
I served for seven years, four of them in counter special forces
I’d always been active growing up
Football, tennis, golf, swimming, mma
During those military years, an average week included around 30km of running/marches and four gym sessions
Naturally when I started my first business, keeping fitness a top priority mattered to me
Three years ago I joined the core team at
@Altcoinist through my best friend,
@KonstantinSebeo
It was my first time building a company in crypto
The emotional and physical toll has been very different from anything I’d experienced before
In the military, most missions and training exercises were temporary
You go all out for a few days or weeks, knowing you have time to rest and recover before the next one
Building a business, especially in crypto, you’re surrounded by incentives to stay online, accessible, and on top of your game every day
There’s always something happening…
You can structure your work to include recovery, but the environment won’t do that for you
So you keep pushing, with no finish line in sight
It takes time to realize you’ve entered an infinite game…
A game you can keep playing for years, without ever reaching a point where everything is finished
I think a lot of founders learn this through burnout
You push until you realize you can’t keep going like this forever
That brings me back to environment
We all know the saying,
“You are the sum of the five people you spend the most time with.”
But the influence goes beyond people!
It includes how you structure your days and what your work constantly encourages you to do
Even with years of training behind you, it’s easy to end up in a routine that works against the things you’ve always prioritized
Learning all this through trial by fire has made me ask myself the following questions more often:
- If I want to keep building for years, what environment can I create that helps me do that?
- How do I shape my days and weeks so they work for me, not against me?
- And how do I make room for recovery when there’s always another reason to keep working?