Thread by @ericbahn

I've been thinking a lot about compound interest. It's not just about money. It's about everything, including physical/mental health, manifest in the small/big decisions we make every day.

The biggest compounding factor of my life is who I surround myself with. Thread:

1/ There was a time many years ago where I was stuck in a job that I hated. Nothing about it was specifically bad, but I just felt like it was suffocating my creativity. Each day I walked into the office, my heart rate jumped a bit and cortisol flushed a bit through my body.

2/ I was able to get out of that position, but in hindsight I wonder what would have happened if I had stayed in that role I hated for many more years. What happens when you have slightly more stress hormone each day than is normal, over the course of decades? You die faster.

3/ The thing is, is that slightly-elevated stress doesn't even feel that bad. It's the Sunday scaries, or the sigh you take before walking into a conference room full of people you don't like. Nothing abnormal. But it's kind of like a frog being boiled slowly, unknowingly...

4/ In the last year I started going to therapy and I have been able to process my experiences more. I'm learning about dialectic, where your body/gut give you queues about interactions you have with people.

5/ I have discovered there are people who the moment I think/interact with them immediately tighten my gut and elevate my heart rate. And there are others that seem to calm me down, make me feel at peace. Identifying this feeling as part of my dialectic has been huge!

6/ Dialectic should serve as an important component in guiding who you should surround yourself with. Discard those who drip more cortisol (stress hormone) into your body, and spend more time with those who drip more oxytocin (happy hormone).

7/ Last week, like many of you, I was feeling really depressed. I'm dealing with a family issue right now, and the US turmoil just brought me down. But, I also had my all-hands meeting last week--what were the feelings I felt in my gut when I saw my team?

Joy. Peace. Love.

8/ I'm so lucky because my team @HustleFundVC provides me a non-stop oxytocin (or whatever happy hormone) drip. The work is stressful of course, but just being around this crew makes me happier. I think that will compound over the next decades. And make me healthier too!

9/ Which leads me to my meandering point--listen to your own dialectic when picking your co-founder and team as well. It's not enough for there to be professional fit--you have to see these people every day, and joy should be the ideal threshhold.

10/ I see so many founders picking co-founders with their head. Logic is not enough. You are signing up for a 7-10 year journey with your co-founder. Make sure you're compounding joy vs. slowly killing yourself with slow-drip stress.