Lately every new year was bigger, wilder, more intense, crazier, more packed with experiences than the previous. But they averaged at “it was OK” in balance of what good and nasty had happened. 2018 is different. 2018 is very much on the “fuck yeah!” side of things. Here are 3 things I learned this year.
“If you have everything under control, you’re not moving fast enough.”
- Mario Andretti
This year has been kind of crazy. You know those crazies you love, the good crazies. In the dozen months I:
- travelled some more around Central America
- finished the 250,000+ miles of travel
- moved to New York
- started a new burning man camp
- found love, traveled together, moved in together & got engaged 🔥!
- grew my company HOO KOO E KOO by over 600% this year 🙀!
- started over 20 new projects (and delivered many :))
- and so so much more..
I think I’m writing this shorter than usual post just to give you an update and to express my gratitude for everything that happened. Because holy F!, so much good went on this year.
Maybe it’s the 30 wonders of the modern world I found? Or maybe it is the happiness tricks that attract good things? Not sure. Let’s get to it — and as usual, there will be something in it for you too my fellow life traveller.
HOO KOO E KOO is 3!
My company, HOO KOO E KOO just turned three 🎂! We are about 30 people now. We work with bigger and bigger clients, startups and tackle crazier and crazier projects.
We just organised our first HOO KOO E KOO retreat, to take place in Oaxaca in February. We’ll be surfing, meditating and thinking up plans for the future. As it feels, future now holds more than ever.
Remember Chester from my old story? He’s now a Creative Director at HOO KOO E KOO. Yes former Global Creative Director of Tesla is now building beauty for the world with us. How amazing is that! (sorry, Elon).
Goals, logs
When I was about 10 years old, living in a lower middle class family in a small town in Poland I set 4 goals for my life, that sort of subconsciously seem to have lead me till now. The goals were more or less
- Get to $1 million in assets (DONE)
- Travel the world (DONE)
- Find true love (DONE!)
- Help fix natural environment on a large scale
The first one is done. The second one will be endless exploration, but having traveled over 250,000 miles over 2.5 years through 5 continents, I think I can say “DONE”.
And ladies & gentlemen, I think this year I found #3. I searched far and wide and boom. In short time we moved in together, got a new place together, got engaged and wow, I actually didn’t think I’d find love this strong in this life time. She’s also a robotics teacher for underprivileged kids of color.
How cool is that? :)
Goal 4 is something in preparation…
Meanwhile!
The Dream Factory (working title 🤷‍♂️)
We conceived a plan to do something incredible to lead there. Together with Jordan Lejuwaan, co-founder of Futurism and Chester (mentioned above), we began building a semi-decentralised machine that will create products and services from music apps to an physical experience spaces to art to a future of work framework to share with everyone else.
Our first product is almost ready to release, can’t wait to show you.
Shoot me a message if interested and I’ll send a link when ready!
The #F Camp
This year I started a burning man camp called “F”. For Future, Friends and Family. Around 60 futurists, designers, artists, entrepreneurs, coders, yogis, healers, teachers, musicians.. all came together at a very special time.
Little did I know, organising a camp takes months of preparations and a month of hard work and it’s waaay harder than I’d expect. But it’s so worth it! We build Luz, the translucent pyramid artwork, too. Some more photos here.
And whatnot
I wish I could tell you about all the incredible things happening right now. We’ll update HOO KOO E KOO website around March with a bunch of new case studies (among others, we designed our first physical products for a big publicly traded company).
From a place where I almost committed a suicide 4 years ago, I’m now where I think I simply cannot be unhappy over a longer period of time. Unhappiness just passes and always comes back to joy. I feel that I truly understood how to be happy no matter what — and you can track this climb a bit if you see my previous posts here.
But I’ve learned some more since, here are three from this year.
Play this video for some Puerto Rico views!
Lesson #1: Happiness snowballs.
Once you ignite this feeling inside, more and more good things start happening. You slowly start steering in a certain direction.
I don’t know who to credit with all good that happened this year. I’m just so thankful for everyone that opened their heart, shared their time, traveled with me, shared their knowledge or a hug and everything I could learn. And all the incredible support when it comes to business.
It seems that happiness attracts more of it, though not without some work.
“Happiness does not consist in pastimes and amusements, but in activities in accordance with virtue”
~ Aristotle
Lesson #2: Don’t search, let it find you.
It seems you just need to tune into right frequency of things and good stuff starts happening as if you didn’t ask for it. You didn’t “think of it”, you didn’t design it, it feels like it just comes. You give up search, conceptualisation and control — for the ability to receive.
You can spend a really long time trying to think of something and miss all opportunities that come naturally. If you give yourself time to be open, to talk to people, to host a dinner and go on a trip, things can work out better than you could have planned it alone.
I think is my biggest lesson of the year.
Lesson #3: Rules for life do work.
For me, finding and setting out rules for my living, some of which I listed in 30 Wonders of The Modern World was perhaps something that subconsciously now drives every choice I make and attracts people who are alike.
I don’t think about these rules often, it’s not my strict decalogue of sorts, but looking back, I didn’t really break them. And when I did, nothing good came out of it.
I really recommend listing some rules that work for you.
Perhaps over time you will see how they help you navigate better — even if subconsciously.
It’s the end of a year. A truly beautiful one. We are in Dominican Republic, escaping winter, kitesurfing and exploring my fiancee’s beautiful roots.
In the new year I wish you find a way to write your own set of rules, tune in and let the good things start flowing. Too many of us are depressed, hopeless and can’t find a way out, but there’s a path.
Thank you everyone, I love you for all that happened.
Plenty of awesome still ahead of all of us!
