Memento Mori: 117 Billion People
Over 100+ billion humans have existed before us… Everyday we drive on roads, enter buildings, use technology, medicine and science whose existence is the result of contributions by billions of human lives that have come before us.
Over 100+ billion humans have existed before us…
When I first heard this number a few years ago, it was kind of mind blowing. Everyday we drive on roads, enter buildings, use technology, medicine and science whose existence is the result of contributions by billions of human lives that have come before us. We stand on the shoulders of 100+ billion humans who are no longer with us.
117 billion humans to be exact. Recent discoveries suggest that modern Homo sapiens existed much earlier than previously thought, around 200,000 B.C.E. This major shift in our understanding of human existence has led to the estimation that about 117 billion members of our species have ever been born on Earth. When considering this vast number, it's humbling to think about our individual significance and the marks we leave behind. But also, motivational, in some ways as well. In the words of the late Steve Jobs during his famous Stanford Commencement speech,
"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important."
This perspective, deeply rooted in the Latin phrase Memento Mori, which translates to "remember you must die," serves as a powerful reminder of our mortality and the urgency to focus on what truly matters. Reflecting on how we can truly have a lasting legacy.
So how many humans are there alive today? As of 2024, the world population stands at 8.1 billion, reaching 8 billion in November 2022. It had taken all of human history until around 1800 for world population to reach one billion, the second billion was achieved in only 130 years (1930) thanks to the industrial revolution, the third billion in 30 years (1960), the fourth billion in 15 years (1974), and the fifth billion in only 13 years (1987). Society reached six billion in 11 years (1998), followed by seven billion in 12 years (2010).
During the 20th century alone, the population in the world has grown from 1.65 billion to 6 billion. In 1970, there were roughly half as many people in the world as there are now.
So what does being in the mix with 8 billion other people mean for our ability to leave a mark on the world? Well quite a lot actually, as there is a second historical trend happening at the same time as our explosive world population growth; the rise of the internet.
As of 2024 internet users worldwide reached 5.35 billion, only 66.2% of the global population. This number is expected to rise to 6.54 billion by 2025, thanks to the spread of internet access through affordable mobile phones. From a mere 1.97 billion internet users in June 2010, this growth is nothing short of revolutionary. For context, that means only 1/3 of people now online had internet access when most of us in the tech community had already started tweeting in the late 2000’s…
The finite nature of our time on earth is undeniable. Yet, it's this very limitation that underscores the unprecedented opportunity available to us today. With today's connectivity, individuals have the potential to impact lives on a scale never before imaginable. From sharing knowledge to fostering global movements, the digital age is democratizing influence.
Personally, I'm on a mission to use my time to improve the lives of at least 1 billion people. I’ve shared this goal before in my previous reflections, and it is grounded in the belief that by helping founders and innovators reach their potential, their creations can, in turn, benefit humanity at large, thus improving the lives of 1 billion. It's a mission that I'm deeply passionate about.
In the grand scheme of the universe's timeline, our lives are but brief flickers of existence. Yet, it's within this brevity that we find our most profound opportunity to make an impact. The digital age has gifted us with tools of unprecedented power—the power to connect, to share, and to change the world in ways we're just beginning to understand.
As we navigate this golden age of connectivity, let’s carry the essence of Memento Mori with us—not as a morbid fixation on death, but as a vibrant call to live fully and to leave an indelible positive mark on the tapestry of humanity.
So, what will your impact be? How will you use the precious time you have to create, inspire, and transform the world around you? The clock is ticking, and the digital stage is set. The only question that remains is, what will you do with this unparalleled moment in human history?
Smart Goals And Planning Your Future
The past year has been a long grind and while it’s not January yet, admit it, the thoughts of creative ways you can reinvent yourself in the new year have probably already started. You have probably been extremely busy these past twelve months, but, as you know, being busy does not mean you are being productive.
The past year has been a long grind and while it’s not January yet, admit it, the thoughts of creative ways you can reinvent yourself in the new year have probably already started. You have probably been extremely busy these past twelve months, but, as you know, being busy does not mean you are being productive.
Founder Institute Team Offsite 2018
If you are a rockstar founder or CEO though, you may have already met with your team to gather internal feedback, discuss a rough plan, come up with some smart goals, and chart the corporate course for the next 365 days. One example of how awesome teams do annual planning for the coming year; comes from our Founder Institute team offsite a few weeks ago in Lake Tahoe. As, Founder Institute CEO Adeo Ressi writes: “If you do not know what you want and where you are going, then you will never reach your potential.” Here is the 5 step process that we use at Founder Institute for our annual planning:
So this got me thinking. What if individuals planned for the next year with the same thoughtfulness and designed precision that companies do. To create a proper future plan and their own smart goals. Like most people, I juggle many things; I run Founder Institute New York, host the Ambition Today podcast, helped start the NYC Innovation Collective non profit, and have a personal life, etc. The first and non obvious answer is I have help and amazing teammates. Never take those around you for granted and make sure you have help. The second answer is that I view all of these as aligned to my personal core mission statement. I have a north star that guides my career choices day in and day out. It helps determine, at a high level, what I should say yes and no to.
This long term planning to set smart goals can be vital. It is the foundation upon which you manage your daily routine or drive monthly traction for your company. This tweetstorm from Julien Smith, CEO of Breather, does a great job stating how important it can be to stay focused on your north star. And more importantly how the effects of your long term grind start to manifest in your life. I recommend reading the whole tweetstorm, but here are two highlights:
So what things should you keep in mind as you plan your future smart goals and what you want achieve in the next 8,765 hours.
One: Aligning Yourself
First you need to digest your own thoughts. You need to step out of your normal day to day routine to take a step back. Schedule time to reflect, sans technology device. Just you and your thoughts. Even if is just for a cup of coffee one morning a week, or during a run. Go to a museum or visit a bookstore. Read a self help book. Watch an inspiring movie. Keep an open mind. Do whatever you need to in order to break out of your normal headspace. The clarity this will provide you will be very important.
Second, you need to gather raw and honest feedback from those you most respect and admire. Find someone whose actions or lifestyle you want to emulate and see what they do. Ask them what their routines are like and how they have accomplished similar goals in their own lives. Get an understanding of the blueprint, so you can start to build it for yourself.
Two: Define Your North Star
If you know where you want to go in life, you want to try formalize it into one sentence. Be sure you take the time to workshop it. It might go through many iterations, until it is something you love and feel passionate about. Consider it your personal mission statement. For example, my personal mission statement is to “Help Founders Improve The Lives Of One Billion People”.
If you don’t have a “north star” or a long term goal yet, that is fine. I assure you that you are not alone. And the answer for you is to go back to step one and aim to get as many new experiences as possible in the coming year. You need to test drive new places and people. Join an extracurricular team or activity in the evenings. Go volunteer somewhere. When you find something that feels right, I promise you, you will know.
Three: Establish Measurable Smart Goals
Smart Goals Definition: A goal which needs to conform to the following criteria: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely. ie; S.M.A.R.T. is the smart goals acronym.
Now that you know what you want to accomplish from step two, it is time to define what smart goals will determine success for you. When smart goals setting try to only have a handful of primary objectives. Above five and it will be harder to accomplish them in only a few months. These smart goals are the steps that take you closer to achieving your core mission.
Make sure you quantify the smart goals. Here are some great smart goal examples. If your smart goals are health related you could set smart goals around a specific desired weight, business milestones, daily food consumption, weekly number of workouts, average heart rate, etc. If accomplishing one of these smart goals will require the help of another person, for example a significant other, then you should discuss the smart goals with them and involve them in the process Just like these smart goal examples, you need to always be including a measurement along with the objective.
Four: Create Actionable Plans
Now that you have a mission and list of smart goals, it is time to determine the plans you will execute to work toward accomplishing them.
I like to start by writing the actionable first step underneath each goal. This way when you read it, you don’t get overwhelmed. You will simply know the next action that needs to be taken. From there you can take some time to expand and to build out a repeatable process. Writing out a great process can be hard at the onset because it takes time, but the long term freedom it affords you can be a game changer.
Five: Develop Tracking Systems
You will need to track your plans in order to measure success, thereby determining if you have accomplished the smart goals necessary to bring you closer to achieving your mission.
As with all things in life, accomplishing these smart goals will require time. You should keep a digital calendar. This will allow you to schedule recurring time every week in your schedule to focus on the set smart goals.
If your smart goals require other people then create weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly meetings with those people to review them together.
Allow yourself to view your progress. Create a visual space where you can, at a glance, see how you are doing. At Founder Institute we create dashboards using software. I personally use Todoist to track my tasks. But you could use something as simple as a whiteboard, which you take the time to update weekly.
I like to stack order my smart goals by the things in the next 90 days that will bring in the most revenue. Depending on your life, this can at times be a shifting and moving target. Which is why I re-evaluate it throughout the year.
It will take time to accomplish the five steps, but the result will be a strong annual plan for your life. In the coming months you will accomplish more than ever before. Ensuring that your day to day grind is not just busy work, but meaningful work bringing you closer to the long term vision for your life.
If you want some help and guidance in 2019, be sure to check out two of our Founder Institute NY portfolio company’s which might be able to help! Tenshey is on a mission to advance gender diversity and leadership development through executive coaching. The Lighthouse is a curated community of vetted industry insiders providing tailored career advice and support.
Remember, that the long term grind can be a powerful force. When you work toward your personal mission the long tail rewards will be the most meaningful! You may fail more than once, but keep going. That’s the moment when everyone else quits and you start to become an outlier. That’s when you break away from the pack. Keep the grind going.
I for one am excited for 2019, as major internet milestones are passed. Truth Seekers are pushed to the forefront of society as the Time Person of the Year. Private companies like Space X set records for most flights in a year. As investors leave mobile behind to look for new areas to back, such as blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, quantum computing, and more. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow looks like as we build it together!
NASA's Parker Solar Probe Launch: A Historic Interview To Touch The Sun
NASA made history on August 12, 2018, launching the Parker Solar Probe; their first ever mission to touch the sun. Luckily, I was invited by NASA to come down to Cape Canaveral to have a front row seat to the rocket launch! While there, I had the opportunity and pleasure of interviewing Felipe Ruiz, who is the Deputy Lead Mechanical Engineer from John’s Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
Parker Solar Probe: Credit - Jon Reino Photography
NASA made history on August 12, 2018, launching the Parker Solar Probe; their first ever mission to touch the sun. Luckily, I was invited by NASA to come down to Cape Canaveral to have a front row seat to the rocket launch!
This was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity that I am proud to say I was able to witness with my own two eyes. While there, I had the opportunity and pleasure of interviewing Felipe Ruiz, who is the Deputy Lead Mechanical Engineer from John’s Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. He helped directly build the Parker Solar Probe and was kind enough to share his personal journey contributing to such an important advancement in human civilization.
The Parker Solar Probe will use seven gravity assist Venus flybys over the next seven years to slowly shrink its orbit around the sun. This will bring the Parker Solar Probe as close as 3.83 million miles to the center of the sun. On the probe’s closest orbit, it will be seven times closer than any spacecraft before it. Eventually becoming the fastest human-made object in existence, at 430,000 mph relative to the sun. The spacecraft will transmit its first science observations in December.
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Remembering Today
Memorial Day Weekend has always held a special place in my heart. As a Volunteer Fireman in my hometown, for eight years I marched in the local Memorial Day Parade. At the end of the parade everyone would congregate for a Memorial Day service. We would pay tribute with a gun salute from the local Veterans Organization and a few words in memory of those in the service who have passed before us.
Memorial Day Weekend has always held a special place in my heart. As a Volunteer Fireman in my hometown, for eight years I marched in the local Memorial Day Parade. At the end of the parade everyone would congregate for a Memorial Day service. We would pay tribute with a gun salute from the local Veterans Organization and a few words in memory of those in the service who have passed before us.
And while Memorial Day itself was always a Monday the weekend around it was always more then that for me. The 30th of May was my Dad's birthday. Shortly after his, my brother's birthday followed. Memorial Day Weekend as long as I can remember meant spending time with my family as well as my brother's in Fire Department. I was always surrounded by family this weekend.
And so on this day I remember and thank those who served this country. And on his birthday I remember my Dad, who we also lost too soon. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone that has had to show resilience over the years and overcome the tragedy of losing a loved one. God Bless You & God Bless America.
Your Heart Rate At Gunpoint
It’s a beautiful evening, albeit a little cold. I’m heading home after a long day. I’m walking down a familiar street. I feel safe, I feel happy. Two guys are walking in my direction. Nothing unusual about them. As we are about to pass each other...
Recently my friend Aleksandar Vukasinovic, Founder of Emozia, was robbed at gunpoint while walking home from work. Luckily, I can confirm Aleks is alright. Also, it turns out that during the encounter he was wearing some wearable technology. I felt there are some profound lessons about technology and the meaningfulness of life in his story, so I wanted to make sure I share it with you. Here is Alek's story in his own words:
Aleksandar Vukasinovic Heart Rate
It’s a beautiful evening, albeit a little cold. I’m heading home after a long day. I’m walking down a familiar street. I feel safe, I feel happy.
Two guys are walking in my direction. Nothing unusual about them.
As we are about to pass each other, one of them bumbs into me. He grabs my hand and shoves a gun into my rib. He instructs me not to speak or move. His accomplice covers my other side. I am cornered.
My first thought is “Is this seriously happening to me?” I look down at the gun — yes, yes it is. “Should I run, should I fight, should I scream?” I though. In a split second, I decide to fully cooperate. I don’t want to get shot.
They showed me into an ally off the main street. There is no one around. No one can see us.
And then it really hit me: they could kill me right there. No one would see. No one would know what happened. My fear turned into horror. What was I going to die for? I want to experience life, I want to help people, build companies, have a family. I was going to be denied that, for what? Because of what? I felt pure horror as I realized that my time to experience life and use my skills to build a better world might be up.
The guys told me to empty my pockets. They instructed me to unlock my phone and other personal accounts. I did everything they asked me to do. They backed away with my belongings pointing the gun at me. The guy with the gun told me to stay put and then they ran and disappeared form sight.
A few days later, once the ordeal was over and I was able to process what had happened, I began analyzing wearable sensor data form the event. Unbeknown to the perpetrators, I study wearable and mobile sensor data as part of my work. Luckily, I had a bunch of wearables on me that I was testing that day. One of them captured my heart rate through the ordeal.
My usual resting heart rate is 58bpm. My heart rate right before the confrontation was 80bpm. When the perpetrator pushed the gun into my ribs, my heart rate spiked to 130 bpm. When I began thinking about my death, my heart rate rose to 164bpm. When they took my belongings and started backing away, my heart rate decreased to 118bpm.
I found the data fascinating. To me, it suggested that the most stressful part of the ordeal was not getting assaulted or seeing a gun. The most stressful part was realizing that I was out of time to live through the experiences I wanted to have and to make the contributions I wanted to to my family and community.
The more I thought about the heart rate variations and the thoughts that went though my head about my mortality, the more I looked at the experience as a blessing in disguise. I kind of got to experience how I would feel before I am about to die practically at the start of my life. And I don’t want to feel that I didn’t experience everything I wanted to, that I didn’t contribute everything I could, that I didn’t leave the world a better place than I found it.
The event drastically changed my outlook on life. It motivated me to doubly pursue my goals, to mold my life into what I want it to become and fight for what I believe is right. In a weird way, I not only forgive the perpetrators but also feel thankful for the perspective that I got from the experience.
If you want to find out why I had the wearables on me — check out emozia. I hope that sharing this experience inspires you to live your life in a way that makes you and others smile!
Moving To New York City
New York City. The Big Apple. The Nexus of the Universe. Whatever you call it, it is one of the most unique places on earth and 8.4 Million people call it home. Many of those people moved here from other places in order to pursue their dream. New York City is the promise land of opportunity in the United States. However, moving to New York City is hard.
New York City. The Big Apple. The Nexus of the Universe. Whatever you call it, it is one of the most unique places on earth and 8.4 Million people call it home. Many of those people moved here from other places in order to pursue their dream. New York City is the promise land of opportunity in the United States. Moving here however is no easy task. Getting a job in New York City without living here makes it next to impossible to get called in for an interview and securing an apartment in the cities crazy real estate market is a whole new world within itself. The city is expensive, the city is unforgiving, and the city is challenging.
While living in Buffalo I knew that I wanted to move to New York City and that I wanted to get involved with startups there. I applied to jobs for months before actually moving to New York City. The call's I got back for an interview were to come into the office in a day or two, but I was still 600 miles away in Buffalo. I needed to be closer if I was going to make any progress. I flew to New York City on a day in July with Colleen to try and get us an apartment, but we quickly learned we couldn't get approved in a nice building without a job. After viewing a dozen apartments with a broker we finally got approved by a building. We were quickly educated that being as this was July, where apartments can come on the market in the morning and be immediately off the market after lunch we had to decide fast if we wanted an apartment or not. We took it; real estate broker fee, deposit and all.
A month later we moved to New York City. After struggling just to get into the city I still had to find a job though. I ran out of money shortly after moving to New York City and ended up having to sell my car, which I had payed off while working bartending jobs during college. That only bought me a few more months of runway though. So I took a bartending job that I was able to get through a friend of a friend in Buffalo who happened to do some business in New York City (See Buffalo really is the "The City of Good Neighbors"). The bartending job was part time and still wasn't enough. Again, I was slightly better off than before but not by much. So I took a second job freelancing and working remotely online in the early mornings, writing for a tech website. I was still applying to potential full time jobs and taking interviews in my spare time. The cycle became that I would work bright an early in the morning, then apply to jobs and interview during the day, and finally bartend at night. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
I remember distinctly getting down to $20 in my bank account at this time while I would be waiting for my next paycheck to come in from either of the jobs. I was very close to having to move back to Buffalo. After months of this I finally got a full time job offer out of one of the interviews. I still remember being out to lunch. Colleen and I had company in town visiting us. We were talking about how life in New York has been treating us so far while eating cheeseburgers and I got a phone call. It was my future boss saying that the company would love to hire me and asked when I could start. It was an entry level job but it was enough that I could break even, pay my full rent, student loans, and live in New York City. Since that day, there have been hardships and challenges of course, but I am here. I live in New York City. Casey Neistat last year told a very similar story of his struggle in moving to New York City. How moving here can eat you alive and strip you of all your resources in the process. That even just getting set up to live in New York City is one of the greatest challenges people face.
He explains at the end of the video how it has all been worth it though. How for him the opportunity has out weighed the tremendous cost of moving to New York City in the first place. I have to agree. The opportunities the city has afforded me since then have been tremendous. I get to experience new products, stores, movies, foods, services, and crazes in New York City long before people in other parts of the country. So many experiences. I am always surrounded by ambitious and motivated people here. I feel privileged and love what I get to do now with startups. It was not easy though. So as you can see there is a reason Sinatra once said if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.