F2F #41: Building legacy

I'm only a couple of weeks away from going into paternity leave. I have been waiting for this moment for most of my life.

As is the case with everyone experiencing parenthood for the first time, I might undergo a deep transformation and start (over)sharing stuff related to parenting, learnings and fuckups, and all my daily frustrations and illusions. Maybe. Hopefully, I won't be too intense.

For a founder and CEO of a company, it's often hard to take breaks from business. Your business ultimately depends on you, if you haven't done things right. But if you've selected the best partners, built an incredible team and cemented a solid foundation, you're safe.

I will take at least two months off.

Very often, I get the question "What's next for you after MarsBased?", and I almost never give the same answer. Lately, I am finding myself answering: "Nothing. There'll be no more work after MarsBased".

Back in 2014, when we set off to create the company, we didn't know we were building a lifestyle business. We found later on that such concept existed. Since the first year, we've barely worked a few times over 40h/week or during weekends or holidays.

The best way to build a marble statue is to actually have good marble. Marble withstands the test of time.

You can't build a legacy if your health, reputation or financials are shaky. You can't build a great personal brand if your reputation isn't pristine. Your company's brand won't live 100 years if you built a fair-weather opportunistic business model.

Hence, when we realised that we were building a lifestyle business, we started thinking long-term, both in business and in personal terms. Will we ever sell the company? What do we want to do after this? How much time do we want to devote to work? How can we spend more time with our families? How can we make sure that everyone in the company is as healthy as they can be?

Now, my question for pretty much everyone else who is NOT running a lifestyle business? How the hell can you build legacy?

I am writing from a place of privilege, and I plan to use this privilege to empower other people. This is how privilege should be used.

Lifestyle businesses, and bootstrapped businesses by extension, are perhaps the most optimal way to accumulate wealth, optionality and - ultimately - health, in the process of running them. Bit by bit, year by year, it brings me closer to financial independence and being the master of my own destiny while still empowering others around me.

If lottery is the tax for people who don't know statistics, startup stock options are the tax on people who overestimate their influence and underestimate dilution.

It's about time you take control of your life so you can start building legacy on your own terms.

So, on that note, I might take a break here. Or I might not. I don't know. I've written for 41 weeks straight, never missing a single issue, but I might want to oxygenate a bit during the summer if I'm not inspired enough, or just break the weekly cadence requirement altogether for a while.

We'll see! thanks for your support and I wish you all a great summer!