Do not index
Do not index
TL; DR: This year was less than okay.
Generally speaking, 2024 for me was all about having:
- The mind of a businessman
- The soul of a musician
- The body of an athlete
While I think I improved towards each of these aspects, I failed all the goals I wanted to hit.
I do feel like in 2024 I wasn’t centered.
PERSONAL
I moved to Portugal in June 2022, so this year marked my second year as a resident of Portugal, which has been nice to me.
The back and forth is tiring, but I still like visiting my parents from time to time and of course, my girlfriend who is studying/working in Italy as a pediatrics resident. I’m proud of her, as always.
HEALTH
I completely failed my health goals this year, as I also did in the last years.
No matter how hard I train, it seems I can’t lose weight.
I did even hit the gym pretty regularly (which is very unlike me) and I’m of course still playing padel every day if I can. Now I have over 500 matches under my belt.
There were months where I was going to the gym 3-4x/week and playing padel 1-2x/day and that still didn’t help with my weight loss goal. 😅
MUSIC
In 2024 I played more than 40 gigs, which is double the number of shows I played last year. I’m happy about it but of course, that doesn’t even pay my rent every month. I recorded new CDs as a sideman, but above all I got into electronics purchasing an EWI and lots of pedals ⚡
TRAVEL
I traveled quite frequently this year, mainly the usual back and forth between Italy and Portugal.
I also explored south of Portugal to meet with my friend Fabrizio and went to Tenerife to attend an event with some good friends.
BUSINESS
In 2024 we made a lot less than last year (very low six figures). Of course, I’m not happy with it.
The business still relies heavily on me as I’m pretty much the business, and when I’m not well the business does not perform as well as it can. The quality of your thoughts determines the quality of your life.
2024 has also been the year of AI and I think I got depressed because of it. I was already fast at creating software, now I was even faster. For someone like me who gets bored quite easily, it wasn’t fun to build anymore. I wanted to work less and less.
Also, now building is faster for everybody, which brings in all kind of challenges. The scenario for SaaS is quickly changing and we will see what 2025 entails.
On the business side, for me 2025 will still be about focusing on high-ticket, high-touch, b2b software products.
For the love of data,
Mike Rubini
