Kjerstin Erickson (KJ)

Buying and transforming businesses at Arising Ventures. On the quest to figure out what I believe in. Never met a mountain I didn’t want to climb or ride 🏂🚵‍

[Kjerstin Erickson (KJ) @Kjer]

Teach the kids the future is bright.

[shipra @shipranotes]

An unspoken rule they never teach you in school: you can simply choose a delusional sense of optimism toward the world, believing everything will work out and that you’ll succeed in every facet of life. Reality bends more often to stubborn endurance than it does to calculated doubt.

[Kjerstin Erickson (KJ) @Kjer]

@clu007 @a16z Congratulations! Very excited to hear this 👏

[Kjerstin Erickson (KJ) @Kjer]

@Erica_Wenger Hard agree.

[Kjerstin Erickson (KJ) @Kjer]

The key is in training yourself to take almost sadistic pleasure from the thought of fixing the thing that went wrong, so that you are constantly improvement-maxxing but from excitement not anger.

[David Senra @davidsenra]

“The lifestyle of  an entrepreneur  at its core is:  I can take more pain than the other guy, and I'll prove it.”

“ There's a zen that can happen when a warrior has fought for a long time. You can get used to it.”

“ You almost start accepting it. Like, something bad happens and you don't even get mad.”

“ There are benefits.  But you need to make sure you don't get so used to it that it doesn't even bother you. You can get so zen, you're unbothered.”

“ There's something special about the extra fierceness of being bothered, being upset about something that is wrong.”

— @travisk

[Kjerstin Erickson (KJ) @Kjer]

@businessbarista AI native

[Kjerstin Erickson (KJ) @Kjer]

Maturing is realizing that most of your life choices are really just a function of your extreme aversion to boredom.

[E-go @EgoDriv]

If you’re a hyperactive, high agency type of guy, the only path where you don’t go insane is entrepreneurship. It’s the only life that will stimulate you enough and put you in different situations and problems that actually make your brain function. The more you try to tame that energy the less you will feel alive. Some of us were made for complexity and ambiguity. The safe path is the most dangerous one. You know deep down you’re made for something different. Business is what gives you that. Avoid traditional jobs at all costs. Of course the price is high stress, uncertainty and lots of ups and downs… but let’s be honest, would you have it any other way? No. It’s too boring.

[Kjerstin Erickson (KJ) @Kjer]

“God buries the gold in the wound.”

[🕊️ @lichthauch]

I knew a man who lost everything and he became softer. i knew another man who lost everything and he became a monster. same fire different metal. the pain did not decide. they decided. and most people do not know they are deciding.

the ones who transmute pain are dangerous in the good way. they have been somewhere you have not been and they came back with something and you can feel it when they walk into a room. they are not pretending to be okay. they are actually okay and that is terrifying to people who are pretending.

pain that is not transmuted gets transmitted. you will give it to your children. you will give it to everyone you touch. it will leak out of you sideways in ways you cannot see and everyone else can

i do not trust people who have not suffered. there is nothing there yet. they are still theoretical. suffering is the entrance exam and some people fail it forever and some people pass it once and become real.

the secret is you have to go toward it. you have to want it more than it wants you. most people run and the pain follows. the ones who turn around and walk into it come out the other side and there is another side and no one told you because the ones who know cannot explain and the ones who explain do not know.

God buries the gold in the wound

[Kjerstin Erickson (KJ) @Kjer]

@spencerpratt Go Spencer go!!

[Kjerstin Erickson (KJ) @Kjer]

@jasonth0 @buccocapital I like the way you think 🫡

[Kjerstin Erickson (KJ) @Kjer]

@shittycatfox @JaredKubin It sounds like you or people you know have been hurt 😔

I’ve seen that too, but have seen plenty of beautiful loyal and long-lasting relationships too. Good ones are out there!

[Kjerstin Erickson (KJ) @Kjer]

@erica_wenger This is a good luck charm iykyk

[Kjerstin Erickson (KJ) @Kjer]

@vrexec Hero’s journey vibes

[Kjerstin Erickson (KJ) @Kjer]

I think about this a lot.

We must prepare ourselves psychologically to support the ego death that will happen around us, and possibly to us.

All change can be used for beauty but only - ONLY - when engaged with radical self-accountability.

[VEO @vrexec]

Most people between 25-45 who are very smart, well-liked, “elite” in various ways, highly-paid and educated… have never experienced being laid off and then struggle to quickly bounce back to a role they want or makes sense for them.

But it is going to happen to them soon. It’s going to be brutal on their egos and identities. The psychological torment coming to otherwise extremely confident and competent young people at the tops of their fields will be something quite destabilizing for society.

[Kjerstin Erickson (KJ) @Kjer]

I will never love another human like I love my two bonus children — even though I’m no longer married to their father. I am forever grateful that their parents support the continuation of my access to love them.
When the parents are aligned, the role can be unbelievably beautiful for the step parent as well. Learning to love them like your own opens the heart in indescribable ways ❤️

[Kjerstin Erickson (KJ) @Kjer]

@justinmateen Quite a flex 💪🏻

[Kjerstin Erickson (KJ) @Kjer]

@sourrdoe You just cracked this song open for me. Thank you.

[Kjerstin Erickson (KJ) @Kjer]

@FundamentEdge Beautiful post. Loss of conditioned identity is such a crucial step in the spiritual maturation process. May we all have the gift of going through it early (if not often!).

Thanks for the great share.

[Kjerstin Erickson (KJ) @Kjer]

Word on the street is

[Erwin Blom @erwblo]

@Kjer Tbh @SoftgenAI is a great concept and works as a charm. Most underrated vibecoding tool right now!

[Kjerstin Erickson (KJ) @Kjer]

@bigelam Amen.