Thirty, Grateful, and Restless

The Current State of Things

I turned 30 this year, seven years into a career I enjoy and three years into a house we love. Our two kids (4 & 2) are at that perfect age. On paper, life’s dialed: a good income, a happy marriage, a beautiful home, a fun church calling, yearly trips, nice cars, and a gym with a sauna in the basement.

Yet I wake up with the itch for more.

The Weight I Carry

My Career – Providing for today and preparing for tomorrow’s dreams.

Family – I’m a dad, a husband, and sometimes a sibling-therapist. I also serve as CFO for Mom since Dad passed away in March.

Church Calling – Speaking, conducting, mentoring youth; Sundays and Tuesdays are booked solid.

Side Hustle – Since 2020: $1M+ Amazon revenue, Siftbooks at $2k MRR, dozens of tiny experiments. I've proven to myself that I'm competent, but part-time hours cap the upside.

Arrival Fallacy

Every milestone eventually becomes normal: new house, new car, new SaaS MRR. Gratitude remains, but the goalposts keep moving. I don’t need more stuff, but I'm addicted to progression and growth.

Lessons Learned So Far

Distribution beats product. Solving a problem is the easy part; getting eyeballs is the bottleneck.

E-commerce = built-in traffic, but it ties up cash.

SaaS = nice margins but demands GTM mastery.

Side hours compound only when focused; shiny objects are costly.

What I Want Next

Ownership. Replace my W2 with something I own. I want to stop renting out my time and start compounding it toward something that’s mine.

Impact: Build something life-changing ($10–20 M). Not for the money itself but for the amplified opportunity to do good.

Mastery: Pair my product chops with world‑class distribution. Learn it or partner for it.

My Plan to Get There

I don’t have unlimited hours. I’ve got 60-90 minutes each morning during the week and several hours on Saturday. I have a family I won’t trade for hustle.

I’m planning to run a 10-week sprint. It’s for people like me who want to create and grow something meaningful while juggling other things.

Here's how it will work:

Month 1: Pick the Right Bet. Start wide, then narrow fast. Generate 20 or more ideas. Then, run two tests using a landing page and $50 in traffic. Finally, pick one winner based on actual signals, not just feelings.

Month 2-2.5: Build, Sell, Learn. Ship a v0, run scrappy GTM tests, iterate quickly, and push toward $500–$1K in revenue. Document what’s working and decide whether to double down or walk away.

Weekly Rhythm: I work weekday mornings before the kids are up, as well as Saturdays. Periodic check-ins to hold me accountable and keep Abbey (my wife) in the loop.

It's a sprint that respects and supports our current life and helps build something new.

Note to Restless Builders Like Myself

If you're straddling gratitude and ambition, welcome to the club. You can love your life and still want more from it. Keep showing up. Keep building. Just don’t forget who you're building it for.