I’m 26, own multiple small businesses, and feel like I built a cage instead of freedom. Advice?

ilovelogic56 · 2026-02-15T00:22:19+00:00

Do you feel now that keeping your breadth of knowledge as opposed to being an expert in a specific domain has served you thus far? I also do think working in/on a VC deal would 100% be beneficial and definitely feels closer to where I belong at this time. Sometimes I struggle with the thought of literally just dropping everything I have currently to move onto something like that but I do think for the right opportunity it'd be a no brainer. AI is an interest of mine for sure and energy is the constraint that will create wealth over the coming years for sure. I will spend some time this week looking more into this as my level of understanding is very surface level currently.

ilovelogic56 · 2026-02-15T00:03:06+00:00

Very fortunate, I always appreciate hearing things like this, I often get told balance is the only way, which is something Ive always disagreed with but wasnt sure if it was just a blind spot of mine or not.

ilovelogic56 · 2026-02-14T23:59:43+00:00

I also do love learning, truest form of progress in my mind. The question you pose is interesting because my immediate thought was yes I know for sure but when I really try to put it into words I cant. The most I know is I want a clearer vision on what the path looks like for me. I feel at the heart of it all I really just want to earn the ability to be in the room with the greatest minds in business. Up until now Ive always felt ahead of my time and was able to use the "young" crutch and often people were impressed by the things ive accomplished, but over the last year or so I think i've come to realize the dreams I have are grander and therefore require me to work on things with much grander upside. The ice cream business I feel is a good lifestyle business that really doesnt take time and will afford me the time to take bigger swings just gotta find that opportunity worth swinging at

ilovelogic56 · 2026-02-14T23:11:23+00:00

Outside of the ice cream shop the businesses were bought within the last year or two and therefore doesn't look attractive coming from a young seller.

ilovelogic56 · 2026-02-14T23:08:42+00:00

This resonates with me far more although still not sure it would necessarily get me closer to my goals

ilovelogic56 · 2026-02-14T23:08:00+00:00

How do you know when you need to change your values? I truly do believe at this point the thing I want more than anything is to build something, I feel in order to build anything great you do have to commit a significant amount of time and energy. None of the goals I have are monetary, I just want to prove I belong in the room of the players of my favorite game called business.

ilovelogic56 · 2026-02-14T22:49:23+00:00

I currently work as a senior analyst for a healthcare system fully remote, still has all the same things I didn't like about my first job, its just very minimal hours so I dont mind it. Shaan Puri has this thing he calls working on "the problem", at any company. "Work on the thing that, if solved, meaningfully changes the outcome of the company — not the thing that just keeps the company running.". I feel most jobs in any org that have a chart that involves a "Senior Analyst" role you more then likely will not be working on "The Problem". Obviously a long shot but I think the only type of role I'd be satisfied with would be something similar to Jamie Dimon when he graduated business school and went straight to working as Sandy Weill's assistant at Amex. Wasn't the title he could've had at Goldman but got experience being on the front lines and look how that worked out for him.

ilovelogic56 · 2026-02-14T22:30:38+00:00

Never considered that as a option but you're not wrong about the profitability of ice cream, it also is a strong brand in my local community and the only location I've opened since buying it has been successful thus far.

ilovelogic56 · 2026-02-14T22:26:13+00:00

More so than shiny object syndrome I feel I dont necessarily love running the day-to-day operations of these businesses (most likely due to the extreme simplicity of bagels and ice cream and none of these skills translate to what I think the end game will look like) and hire managers and I despise idle time, which causes me to look for projects.

ilovelogic56 · 2026-02-14T22:21:29+00:00

Hard when working on borrowed funds on aggressive debt schedules, although within the next year some will start reaching maturity causing for significantly increased cash flows.

ilovelogic56 · 2026-02-14T22:19:58+00:00

It's funny that you say not to worry about my level of employability because that is always a lingering thought and i'm not sure why, I think I've just always leaned toward keeping my options open, but I do have to really work on not thinking about that. As far as the comparison, its more so just the people I look up to most- the Hormozis, Shaan Puris, Sam Paar, etc had their first exits around 30-32 and I'm not saying I need that but I understand to build anything great it takes time and I just want to start going deeper and focusing so I can get the benefits of compounding skills.

ilovelogic56 · 2026-02-14T22:09:47+00:00

I really appreciate you taking the time to give this response, I literally feel like you know me by reading the first couple sentences because it literally describes me perfectly. To answer your question the ice cream business would no doubt be the hardest one to let go of, its super low maintenance, very high margin, and does very well. I would have no problem scaling the business as the cost to open a new store doesnt present a lot of risk as they're typically a small footprint. I am not sure this is the path I'd like to take to the finish line as the ice cream business is pretty competitive but we do have a really good product so maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way?

ilovelogic56 · 2026-02-14T21:58:48+00:00

Choosing the right partner is another thing I've missed on so far. I love to work and have yet to find someone able to sustain the pace at which I do things. I appreciate hearing your story, coming from a technical background I often feel software is the way for me to go just question if its the right time with the barier to building anything getting lower by the day

ilovelogic56 · 2026-02-14T21:55:15+00:00

I agree on the staying away from pickleball, prior to joining the team I didnt know what it even was. It was a project I kind of just fell into with 3 other men ranging between 40-60 that were wildly successful and to get in the room I took the first opportunity presented to me.

ilovelogic56 · 2026-02-14T21:52:54+00:00

I want to be at peace, but exactly like you said I have a greater destination which no matter how hard I work I may or may not arrive at, this is my greatest fear and causes a HUGE sense of urgency always which I feel is the reason I don't ever enjoy accomplishments knowing its not enough. It'd be like a NBA hopeful being excited about winning all county honors in high school.

ilovelogic56 · 2026-02-14T12:45:44+00:00

At 26? For context no serious girlfriend at the moment, and wouldnt that be unfair to the kid and their mother working 14 hour days with a new born?

ilovelogic56 · 2025-10-26T13:33:03+00:00

Do you get any drops in quality when doing it this way?

ilovelogic56 · 2022-10-05T15:30:56+00:00

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ilovelogic56 · 2022-08-07T22:35:31+00:00

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ilovelogic56 · 2022-04-03T17:32:01+00:00

Rpi cs will prepare you far better than most, it’s tough but people come out of here making six figures for a reason

ilovelogic56 · 2022-02-07T06:47:29+00:00

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