The Next Ten Years

Originally published on Substack.

From last year into early this year, several projects gradually came to an end or were shut down. One of them was a robot dog project I had spent a long time researching and planning. It had real customer orders, nearly $1.4M in early-stage investment secured, and the promise of future funding through intermediaries. Still, after careful thought and judgment, I decided to call it off.

And for the first time in a long while, I was able to exhale.

I gave myself permission to pause and truly ask:

Who do I want to become in the next ten years?

What kind of life do I want to live?

Over the past 19 years, I’ve walked two very different paths:

The first was a 12-year global corporate career. From frontline engineer to mid-level manager, I worked across China, the U.S., Germany, Japan, and many other countries, honing my skills inside some of the world’s top automotive manufacturing systems. I learned about standards, processes, efficiency, and execution—and through countless collaborations with international teams, I learned about myself and how the world works.

The second journey was nearly seven years of continuous entrepreneurship. Realistically, it was five years of startups, and two years of rebuilding from the bottom as an independent consultant. I explored industries from robotics, Industrial IoT to AI. I drove over 10,000 miles across the U.S., and navigated city after city in China.

I’ve seen both the heat and cold of capital, the rise and fall of markets, the forming and dissolving of teams. And time after time, I wrestled with the tension between technology and business.

Every project that ended felt like a graduation—not a failure, but a transformation. With each one, my perspective widened, my judgment matured, and my direction became more focused.

Now, I’m choosing to slow down.

Not to stop—but to return to my own rhythm.

I’m working out, studying, and rebuilding my foundation: a clear mind, a strong body, and a sustainable pace.

Waiting—not passively, but intentionally—for what comes next.