I Shut Down My $15M Business. It Was a Huge Mistake

Sean Weisbrot: Welcome back to another episode of the We Live To Build podcast. Today, we don't have a guest, and that's okay because sometimes I like the opportunity to just sit here and talk with you all. So this is 1 22. I am recording on December 12th, 2022, and there's a few things I'd like to talk about. The first is kind of a reflection on 2022, and then I'd like to go into some things I've learned over the last few years.

Sean Weisbrot: So let's start with a reflection on 2022. So we're at the end of 2022 here, and from my point of view, 2022 has been a very trying year. There's some things I can't talk about with you just yet. Hopefully there's more information that I can share in 2023. I do think 2023 is going to be a much better year for some reasons and a much worse year for other reasons.

Sean Weisbrot: I'm gonna keep my predictions for myself. Maybe I'll share them at the end of the video. So what have I learned in 2022 and what have I gone through? I. So earlier this year, I decided I was gonna move to Portugal in order to live a European lifestyle, right? I've spent 10 years in China, four years in Vietnam, and I still don't really wanna live in America.

Sean Weisbrot: So I decided I'm going to live in Portugal. I. The entire process took about eight, nine months. Started in December of 2021. I got my Visa in April of 2022, and I started to travel around Europe. I was in Greece and then Slovenia, and then Spain, and then Portugal over a few month period. And then from June to November, I was in Portugal.

Sean Weisbrot: because the residence permit that I have requires me to spend 183 days a year in the sheen zone in order to maintain residency, which is totally fine. I knew what I was getting into. thoughts about Europe in 2022. Greece was beautiful and very inexpensive. Slovenia was very cold and gorgeous, but not a good place to live if you're not a small family.

Sean Weisbrot: In Spain, I was in Valencia. Valencia is beautiful. The beaches are amazing. and then I was in Porto in northern Portugal and it was just a very beautiful place, but very small. You could walk it very easily every day, to a point where after a few weeks I just got super bored and the day I arrived in Lisbon, I knew that was it.

Sean Weisbrot: I was home. I knew I had never been to Lisbon before. I had never been to Portugal before, and I decided back in December of 2021 that I was gonna live there. I. expectations versus reality of living in Portugal. I happen to come at the wrong time. The cost of living has gone up significantly from the last few years.

Sean Weisbrot: I think this is happening all over the world, but Lisbon specifically, because there's a lot of people like me that are coming to live there now, bringing dollars and, other currencies that are stronger than the Euro especially, it doesn't help that the Euro has fallen in value against the dollar, which we don't have to talk about here.

Sean Weisbrot: So, The food in Portugal is amazing. The people are amazing. There's tons of social opportunities and events, and I've made a lot of really great friends in a very, very fast period of time. one or two Americans, the majority are European. And, I really miss Portugal right now, as you could probably see the pictures in the background.

Sean Weisbrot: I'm in Miami visiting my family for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the experience I had in Portugal left me, I don't wanna say breathless, but just like instant, instant love. And so I have to thank my friend Orin because he told me about Portugal, a year and a half ago, and I knew that I needed to try and live in Europe.

Sean Weisbrot: So, the food is not very expensive. The housing is incredibly expensive and extremely difficult to get. It is incredible. I have never experienced in my life such immense, demand versus supply, in terms of, deficiencies and all that, and I think some of it's manufactured. But, but all in all, Portugal is a place where there's a lot of entrepreneurship, there's a lot of opportunities, really amazing people.

Sean Weisbrot: And, I'm so happy that I moved there. I'm looking forward to going back there in March. professionally, what did I learn? Professionally, I have learned a lot from the podcast I've, I've done. Over 50, 60 episodes this year on the podcast. I've met a lot of amazing guests along the way. I've been building a Discord server to house a lot of the audience, as well as some of the guests.

Sean Weisbrot: And I'm working in 2023 to expand this server to be something much bigger, which I won't talk about just yet. Maybe I'll talk about it next month in January. I've learned a lot about responsibility and leadership. I made some decisions in my startup, over the last few years that have taken me to a point where I've mostly walked away from the daily operations.

Sean Weisbrot: I am happy about it because before this startup, I was running a consulting company and I've decided to restart the consulting company again because I have learned that I love being a consultant and an advisor a lot more than I do a tech CEO. And the reasons why our. Dealing with investors is very tough, and building these teams and managing these teams and forecasting and projecting for years out, which make no sense.

Sean Weisbrot: there, there's just so many nuances of a VC path tech company that are extremely difficult, anxiety inducing, panic attack inducing, just it's a, it's a daily lifestyle that I. I don't like, I've come to not enjoy. And I find that being a podcast host and a consultant and an investor are a lot more enjoyable for me on a daily basis.

Sean Weisbrot: So I'm gonna continue to be doing these podcasts because I love entrepreneurship and psychology, and I love the content we're putting out.

Sean Weisbrot: I love the people that we get to meet and, and share with you. but in terms of my startup, I'm moving away from it. That's okay. I think we need to constantly evolve, and that's part of who I am.

Sean Weisbrot: I realized that what I did before I did this makes me happier. And so if I were to continue to do that on a daily basis, I'd be living a lie and I would be continuing to do things that don't really make me happy. but at the same time, I have to be really grateful for everything I've learned. In running the startup and, and from the podcast guests so far.

Sean Weisbrot: So I'm really looking forward to expanding on that in 2023. I've already got a number of episodes recorded that are gonna be incredible, and I am working on a massive number of guests for next year. I've already got another 30 episodes that are ready to be recorded, so tons of work behind the scenes on that.

Sean Weisbrot: Now what have I learned from the last company to the startup till now? In the last company that I had, it was a consulting business and this business sold over $15 million in services in less than two years. And this was, services provided by other companies as well as services provided by the contractors and employees that my company had.

Sean Weisbrot: When the market changed in the middle of 2018, I decided to shut that company down and start the tech company that I've, I've now recently just announced I'm, I'm working towards, moving away from. And what I did was I shut down that company and I took profit and invested into this other company. Not having any experience as a tech CEO, therefore, not realizing that it was gonna take far longer and cost far much more money than I expected.

Sean Weisbrot: As a result, I started to build up my anxiety and panic attacks, which I had never before had in my life because I was investing my personal money while not having another stream of income and putting all of my energy into the tech company. As a result, I made some really dumb mistakes and so what I've learned from this is.

Sean Weisbrot: If I could do it again, now I can't and I don't regret it. But if I were young and, and in that situation again, what I would have done was I would've taken the money, I would've reinvested it into that business and in order to make it sustainable so that then I would have profit still coming in instead of just shutting it down.

Sean Weisbrot: Use that profit to build the tech company so that I wouldn't have needed outside investment and I could have continued to fund it, knowing that no matter how much money I spent on it, the other company would still continue to exist and generate income for me and money to fund the company. And that was a really big mistake that I made.

Sean Weisbrot: I was so young, I didn't know what I was doing, and that caused a lot of problems for me personally, professionally, and financially over the last few years. To a point where I now have to rebuild from scratch because, walking away from the startup, I'm not taking a salary anymore. so that money can stay within the bounds of the company.

Sean Weisbrot: And so, I think 2023 is a year of change. I think it's a year of, really, upskilling and, and diversification. I think there's many opportunities to make money this year, by providing services for companies in the realm of workforce planning and business intelligence and cost reduction, right?

Sean Weisbrot: Companies are gonna be looking to spend less, save more, and, and profit more. And so there's a lot of ways that companies can think about these things. And if you find yourself needing this kind of a service, my partner and I are providing this service. So if you wanna know more about it, you can go to my Twitter, or email.

Sean Weisbrot: My Twitter is, as Sean Weiss brought me, an email . We live to build. gmail.com and you can learn more about the services we provide, as well as get into our Discord server. The link will be in the description for this video. it's also discord.gg/we live to build.

Sean Weisbrot: There's already a hundred people in there and we're growing every day. and I'm looking to really push this community to grow as fast as possible in 2023 using paid ads and. Editors and short clips and all sorts of methods to really grow and we have some amazing guests going, coming on in 2023. I'm really looking forward to it and that's kind of my reflection on 2022.

Sean Weisbrot: I've learned how I need to change myself in order to continue to grow in 2023. I've learned a lot about what I can and can't handle what I want and don't want in my life, and kind of reaffirmed that 2023 is when I'm gonna really have that, action in place or the, those, take action on those, those points, so that I can get back to living the life that I, I wanna live.

Sean Weisbrot: And, January 14th, I'm gonna be going to Guatemala for a few weeks with a good friend of mine, which is really cool because I haven't seen him in a few years. I've never been to Guatemala. There's tons of volcanoes and hiking and lakes and Mayan pyramids ruins.

Sean Weisbrot: Jungles rivers, hot springs, coffee tours, chocolate farms, macadamia nut farms, you name it.

Sean Weisbrot: Like, this is gonna be an incredible chance for me to unwind and kind of, go through, all of the things I need to think through and, and reflect on and, and take action on. coming 2023.

Sean Weisbrot: So, thank you very much for listening to this update and this reflection and this, look ahead for the next year and, and what we live to build is and what we're becoming. And I hope you have an amazing Christmas and amazing New Year's, or our happy holiday if you don't celebrate Christmas and. I'd love to hear what you're working on and, and what you're looking forward to, and what you've learned from this year. And, definitely let us know in the comments below and look forward to the next few episodes that are coming out, the rest of this year and, what's coming ahead in 2023.

Sean Weisbrot: So, thank you very much and, and thank you for being a part of our journey so far.