The Truman year

me walking out of 2025

a moment of gratefulness for this year.

this year has been nothing but easy. a lot of possibilities, a lot of setbacks, and most importantly, a lot of learning.

i basically stopped studying at the start of this year. then i started working at Capalo, decided to quit after 1/2 year & become a founder again, moved to SF, raised money, moved back to Hel, made a deal with the $#?, had a lovely time in Ukraine, and soon our team will exceed 10 people.

for the past half a year, all my time has been put into building Kova. can’t lie, sh*t has been amazing.

this is not a recap of my year, but some honest thoughts & reflections from this year i call the Truman year.

you never know what's going to hit you

it has been a valuable lesson in understanding that you have no way of knowing whether a current or future event will be good or bad. i don’t have to put energy or time into wondering what some past event might cause; instead, i can focus on the future. the Chinese farmer story has been a great cope of mine this year.

expand your luck surface area

regarding the previous one, the best things that happened this year were mostly based on luck. but luck isn't an independent variable, it increases with the chances you have to be lucky. so go out there, do more, and expand the surface area. you can literally hack more luck into your life.

you can do whatever the f you want & rules are made up

nothings going to stop you. you can just walk away. really big learning has also been that do i actually think a certain way or have i just been taught to think like that. rules are made up, and its much easier to ask for forgiveness than to get permission.

shoot first, correct later

this is an army reference, but it fits really well into the startup world as well. most of the time you don't know the outcome, so its much better to just get the wheels rolling. even the best baseball players fail 70% of the time, which means having a .300 batting average means the world's best fail twice as often they succeed.

you need to gamble more

i wrote about this in here

be more delusional & willing to work hard

"one doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time" - André Gide

be yourself & cut bad habits

this year i have been trying my best to just be myself. not giving a sh*t about what anyone else thinks. not pleasing people by compromising myself. not feeling guilty of doing things i enjoy doing. giving a straight 'no' instead of a 'maybe'. not pretending i like things because others like them as well. The list goes on…

"the A player" paradigm

there is this saying that A players want to work with A players. and thats true. but they will work for the C players, and the dropouts own the goddamn business. the smart kids are too smart & too risk averse. the matrix rewards degenerates who want action

take more risk

i've learned to take a sh*t ton of more calculated risks. having an uncomfortable amount of risk has become a comfort state of mine.

dropping out

probably one of the scariest but best decisions ive ever made. really thankful to my mom & others who 'supported' and didn't force me to continue.

having a gut feeling is really important

the best decisions this year have been because they felt like an instant 'hell yes' because of a great gut feeling. I've learned to listen to my gut, and even tho how random it sounds, the hit rate has been really good, in recruiting, business-wise, poker, etc.

the startup scene is so full of bullshit it creates 100X opportunities if you can focus

people really live in a bubble and crowds are echoed by their own voice. Most of the time if you can think for yourself (most really can't) you can find a really good opportunity. you'll probably have to go against the consensus, which is hard, but if you can do it you're going to make it

get really good at knowing yourself & your body

i have had to learn a lot about my body and the limits it has for the past couple of years. i like to run experiments on my body, and fe. i found a small amount of snus+caffeine to work really well, until it turned into an addiction, and i quit cold turkey. especially knowing what helps you focus and what distracts you is really important

giving without getting

one really important thing Luukas & i wanted to bring back from SF was this culture of helping & giving without getting anything out of it personally. i don’t like to pretend that i wouldn’t have time in my calendar, so if you need help, call me. it’s very rewarding seeing that you can plant a seed of spark & hope to someone.

its easier to build a hard thing than an easy thing

once you get committed to solving something hard there is no turning back. im really grateful that i get to work on these problems with people who share the passion. it's also so much easier to recruit, raise money, and be consistent doing the hard thing

thank you

really massive gratitude towards all friends, family, supporters and people that stand by me through thick & thin. next year is going to be insane.

- T, $$.12.2025