Disclaimer: While the ideas and content are my own, I used AI to improve the writing, style, and grammar.
That is the question I am determined to answer for myself.
Until I reach my goal of earning and donating €1,000,000, I will, figuratively speaking, lock myself in my room and dedicate nearly all of my waking hours to my full-time job and building my “founding to give” business alongside it.
I must admit that this is not an original idea. I was inspired by this YouTube video about an entrepreneur who adopted an extremely regimented lifestyle while working toward his goal of earning one million dollars.
I want to apply that same intensity to an objective I find more meaningful: not merely earning €1,000,000, but also giving it away to the most effective charities.
What I mean by locking myself into a room is defined by the following rules:
1) Work 12 hours a day, every day, divided between my full-time job and my founding-to-give business. There are no weekends or scheduled days off.
2) Make the schedule sustainable by sleeping eight hours every night. When working on the business, I work in blocks of 90 minutes, with 30 minutes of rest between each block. Rest can include walking, meditating, journaling, light exercise, or listening to music.
3) Cut out all distractions: no social media, YouTube, movies, television or gaming.
4) Retain only enough money to cover basic food, shelter and essential living expenses. All remaining money will either be reinvested into the business to increase its future earning potential or donated to effective charities.
5) Continue following these rules until I have actually donated €1 million to effective charities.
Because I believe this may be my best bet at doing the most good.
While searching for a high-impact career, none of the direct-work opportunities I encountered spoke to me or felt like a particularly strong fit. I found myself much more drawn to earning to give.
My first plan was to pursue quantitative trading, a field known for both its high earning potential and its highly competitive hiring process. However, after two separate rounds of applications and being rejected everywhere, my chances of landing a quant job seemed close to zero.
During that period, I landed a different job in finance and came up with a business idea.
I truly believe in this business and currently consider it my best personal fit to creating a significant amount of positive impact.
Of course, believing in an idea and working hard do not guarantee success. There are countless variables that determine whether a business succeeds or fails, and most businesses fail. I understand that mine has a high chance of failing as well.
But I would rather make a serious attempt and fail than spend the rest of my life wondering what might have happened if I had fully committed myself.
I want to make it very clear that I do not necessarily believe this lifestyle will lead to the greatest impact for everyone, nor am I advocating that others adopt it.
There are two main reasons for this.
First, there is much more to life than working and trying to maximize impact. I hope everyone in this community can have a healthy and happy life alongside the impact they create. Finding the right balance between doing good and living a fulfilling personal life is a deeply personal question.
Second, more hours worked do not necessarily lead to greater impact. An additional hour of relaxation or socializing may improve focus, make you more efficient or prevent burnout.
I wish I could say that the answer is something heroic, that I am sacrificing everything for the greater good of humanity.
But the truth is that, for me, this is not entirely a sacrifice. It is something I would probably be drawn to doing anyway.
I have always had an obsessive personality.
When I first discovered chess, I spent my days doing almost nothing else. When I was not playing matches, I was reviewing my games, solving puzzles, or watching educational videos by chess grandmasters.
When I first became interested in fitness, I worked out every day, tracked every calorie and gram of protein, tried very hard to create the perfect workout routine to maximize muscle gain and spent much of my remaining time watching videos of other people vlogging their workouts.
Obsession can be unhealthy, unproductive, or directed toward things that ultimately do not matter. I do not want to glorify it. I simply want to figure out if I can point that part of myself toward something more meaningful.
Instead of obsessing over a chess rating, a physique, or another purely personal goal, I want to obsess over creating as much positive impact as I can. That, to me, is a life well spent.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. Now if you'll excuse me I've got some work to do.