Quentin Tarantino tells a story on Joe Rogan about “falling asleep” in his 20s. He was working at a video store, surrounded by movies all day, joking with friends, living a comfortable life. It wasn’t his dream—but it was dream‑adjacent. In reality, he was sleep walking through life without realizing it.

His wake‑up call came in the form of a time traveler.

An older friend hit 30, looked back on a decade of menial jobs, and realized he’d spent his youth “hanging out with a bunch of guys just like you” and never actually doing the thing he talked about. In that moment, Tarantino wasn’t just hearing a rant. He was being shown a glimpse of his own future if he stayed on the same path. A version of himself at 30, bitter and stuck, saying, “I wasted my life.”

We all get those time travelers. Maybe it’s a boss who hates their job or the “successful” entrepreneur that is a stranger to their kids. They’re not there to lecture you. They’re accidentally showing you where your current choices lead if everything “goes right.”

I meet a lot of people with incredible ideas. Businesses they'll start "once things slow down," moves they'll make "after this next bonus," projects they'll launch "when it's the right time." The stories are exciting, but often these dreams remain fiction, never materializing into reality.

Jeff Bezos’ “regret minimization framework” is my antidote to that. Picture yourself at 80, looking back. What would you regret more: trying something meaningful and failing, or never taking a shot because you were scared of losing comfort, status, or certainty?

This is where Stoicism ties it all together. You don't control outcomes—the luck of meeting the right person, landing that investor, or catching the right trend. You do control your inputs: putting in the work and not being afraid of failure. Minimizing regret isn't about winning every bet. It's about knowing you gave your full effort to the things that mattered, instead of sleepwalking through a "dream‑adjacent" life.

Dreamers talk about possibilities. Doers use those glimpses of the future as prompts to change the present.

As I step into my 30s, that's my focus: keep dreaming big, but judge myself on today's efforts. Am I putting myself in the right rooms? Am I truly pursuing my dreams, or am I hiding behind safety and security?

Over a long enough time horizon, the scoreboard will sort itself out. The real question is: when your next time traveler shows up, will you ignore them? Or finally wake up?

Credit: ideabrowser.com

15‑minute EMOM (every minute on the minute) x 3 rounds:

If you finish early, rest for the remainder of the minute. If you fall behind, cut the reps slightly and keep moving.

4 rounds for quality:

Rest 90 seconds between rounds. Finish with a 5‑minute easy walk or bike.

25 minutes:

Focus on showing up for every rep, not how fast you are.

Falling into the busy calendar trap is such a death sentence for early-stage founders - protect your time for deep work at all costs.

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The Tarantino clip that inspired this week’s letter:

every second counts.