Starting Over, Even After the Ruin
Am I crazy to keep hoping and dreaming while sitting in a pile of ashes?
Maybe… but nobody else really wants to tell you how much or how many times you'll lose... They'd rather talk about success like it's linear... like if you just keep pushing, you’ll eventually land somewhere good.
They don’t talk about the part where you fall in love with something, give it everything you have, and then watch it crash down or sometimes even just slowly fade, without ever becoming what you hoped it might be.
”This will probably fail, badly” would not be a book title that would pull in all those masses of people looking to get rich quick, yeah?
Serial entrepreneur, optimist, or hopeless romantic… I’ve been called many things…
I've started on well over a hundred ideas. Wild, obsessive, promising ideas...and maybe only two or three ever got enough traction to find some success. Not because the others weren’t good... but because time, life, energy, priorities, and reality all have a say in the matter. Sometimes it wasn’t the right season. Sometimes other people stopped me, or sometimes I changed, the spark just faded or I simply forgot about it.
And yet... I’ve never once regretted trying a single one of them, I’ve only regretted realizing something had failed, but keeping at it anyway, because that’s when you stop growing and start just “surviving.”
Every one of those “failed” ideas or paths taught me something I couldn’t have learned any other way, and sure, this might be a romantic outlook, but every dead project sharpened my vision. Every false start made it easier to spot what truly matters the next time. Nothing is ever fully wasted... unless you never pivot, or you stop creating altogether.
Starting Over Can be Exciting
The truth is, starting over is underrated. People act like it’s this humiliating thing... some kind of defeat. But what if starting over is just proof that you’ve grown? That you saw it for what it was, took the best of it, and decided to evolve instead of stagnate.
Starting again might mean letting go of what never fit you in the first place. It might mean finally creating something that doesn’t wear someone else’s expectations. And maybe for the first time... you get to build it as you, not as the version of you who was still trying to serve someone else’s plans.
Everything that crashes teaches you how to fly better next time.
That business that didn't work? Maybe it taught you what you never want to do again. That relationship that you feel coming to an end? Maybe it gave you the words you now write with... or the empathy you lead with... or maybe now you get the freedom you didn’t know you were missing. It’s all part of it.
This Isn’t Failure... It’s Becoming
We spend so much time worrying about making the "right" move... but the truth is, most rebels I know are constantly breaking and remaking their path. What looks like failure is usually just iteration... what looks like giving up is often just course correction... and what looks like starting over or changing your mind is actually becoming more real.
So, if you're here now, with something that collapsed... something that faded... or something that just never caught on like you thought it would... good. You're not done, and you're not alone.
You’re just starting again... and again... until what you're building fits your actual life, not the one you were told to want.
And maybe this next version is the one you’ll stick with. Or maybe it’s just a stepping stone to the one that will finally click. Either way, that’s still movement... still momentum... and it still matters.
Not Everyone and Everything Can Stay
Seriously... everything around us is changing all the time.
The world shifts, markets evolve, people show their true colors, “love’s blinders” fall off, and of course the world and culture flips on itself overnight. So why are we expected to stay the same? I'm not talking about following the wind, I'm talking about those times you didn't know what you didn't know... and now you do!
Consistency is praised... even when it means stagnation, but don’t buy into that… you’re allowed to change, allowed to pivot. You’re allowed to outgrow things... even the things you once fought hard to build.
You're not trapped by choices… and your life wasn’t created by the choices you made, it’s created by the choices you STOPPED making.
Your life is not the sum of your choices, it’s the sum of the times you gave up on making new ones.
The Writing is On the Wall
Don’t let things stretch on for years and years…
Whether it’s a business idea, a partner, a friend, or even your customers, employees, or the market you are in… sometimes the potential you see for them is just simply not there, and never was. They never had that potential at all, ever… it was merely you projecting what you want them to be, or what you would do in their shoes… but they aren’t you!
We need to look at things objectively… sometimes things just aren’t ever going to work out, no matter how long we wait, they will only get worse. The sad fact is that a lot of people peak in their 20s, or even in high school, but others, the rare ones… they grow and evolve for their entire life, getting better every day.
Business is the same way… some grow forever and pivot, evolve… and others, like GoPro, or most memecoins, peak early, and then never again.
Also… and this is hard, but sometimes only rock bottom can show us we’ve been held back and controlled by situations, jobs, partners, or our own fear of looking like a failure. But rock bottom is a great place to build brand-new… this time, wiser, stronger, and bolder… without obligations, guilt, and naivety.
Until then, Rebels... keep becoming your best version, I know I will.
Alright, that was all for now Rebel.
By the way… only a few know where the Rebel Speakeasy is. And now you’re one of them—grab a drink and let’s talk. We meet every Wednesday in live audio spaces on X.
Hope to see you there!
- Ani & Rick
RebelSpeakeasy.com by Ani • Rick
Find us on X @NFTrebels & @unl0c7