Herzliya, Work, and What Comes Next

September 2026.

Hey,

This is the first one of these.

The idea is pretty simple: once a month I’ll send an email about where I am, what I’ve been doing, and whatever I’ve been thinking about lately. Hopefully something you can read in a few minutes.

Right now I’m living in Herzliya and working seven days a week.

I work at a hotel as a receptionist and Duty Manager, and on the days/shifts I’m not there, I do Wolt food deliveries.

It sounds like a period of pure hustling, and I guess it is, but the funny thing is that I actually like both jobs. I especially love the people I work with at the hotel, so somehow I’m working all the time while also having quite a lot of fun.

Still, three days ago I got tired of working so hard.

I’ve been working seven days a week for maybe a year now, and I started thinking about working only five instead.

Obviously my managers didn’t love this idea lol.

I told one of my managers that I was getting tired, and he basically told me that hospitality is exhausting, but if I want to climb the career ladder, this is what it takes.

He told me that after 30 years in hospitality, what helps him is having an anchor — remembering that someone’s vacation or a family’s holiday can be better because of him.

He also told me that I can always just be a receptionist, but being a Duty Manager makes you see everything from a completely different perspective.

And honestly, I think he’s right.

But after thinking about it, I realized something:

It’s just not worth it to me.

Not because climbing the career ladder is wrong or bad.

I just don’t want to climb it.

That realization connects to something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently: you can’t have every possible life at the same time.

You can’t have a house that’s rural, in the mountains, on the beach, walking distance from shops, and also has a snow season.

At some point you have to choose your priorities.

And I think for the next chapter of my life I’ve chosen traveling.

I’ve also been trying to simplify what I want to create.

One YouTube video per month.

One newsletter per month.

One book per year.

And then actually live my life instead of constantly inventing another goal, business idea, project, podcast, whatever.

I wrote something in my journal recently that I think sums up what I’m trying to figure out:

“I need to slow down. I’m always doing something 24/7. There is no moment, not even one, that I’m not doing anything.”

So I’ve been thinking more about boredom too.

Riding a bicycle with no destination. Sitting somewhere without my phone. Journaling. Walking. Doing absolutely nothing for 20 minutes and seeing what happens.

There’s a huge world outside of me, and probably an even bigger one inside my head. It would be a shame to die without exploring both.

Also, this past year has actually changed quite a lot for me.

I stopped smoking cigarettes. I stopped drinking coffee and basically drink water now. I changed my relationship with weed. I started working out. I started journaling for the first time in my life. I got out of debt for the first time, started saving money for the first time, and started investing.

I’m so fucking proud of myself.

And today something else happened.

I applied and paid for my New Zealand Working Holiday Visa.

I’m not planning to tell people in my normal life about New Zealand.

If you’re reading this newsletter, though, now you know.

That might become a funny feature of these emails: there could be things happening in my life that I’m not announcing anywhere else. I don’t use social media, and I don’t really want to make a big announcement about leaving.

My current plan is much simpler.

At some point, I’m just going to disappear.

And then one day people will realize I’m in New Zealand.

Anyway, that’s where I am right now.

Herzliya. Working seven days a week. Saving money. Journaling. Trying to create more and consume less.

And quietly preparing to leave.

See you next month.