I've come so far. I'm nowhere near where I want to be.

At the start of 2026, I was copying HTML out of a ChatGPT chat and pasting it into Hostinger by hand. That was my website.

Ten months later, I run AI agent workflows that break a big job into small, targeted tasks. They built over 40 practice tests, 25 drills and a full learning platform that recommends what each user should practise next. I can build in a week what took me three months in January.

And I have made almost no money.

Both of those things are true. For a long time, I thought I had to pick one.

So far

Further to go

Start of 2026

Pasting HTML from ChatGPT into my website by hand

Now

AI agents built 40+ practice tests, 25 drills and a learning platform

The goal

A profitable business with steady sign-ups

The pull to pick a side

Some days I looked only at the money. I felt stuck. It felt like my effort wasn’t paying off and I had wasted my time. Every competitor looked bigger.

Other days I looked only at how far I had come. I felt like I had made it. That is the dangerous version: you get complacent, you stop learning, and you forget how competitive building a business is.

Each view felt like the truth. Each one was only half of it.

The idea that changed how I see it

In a 1936 essay, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that a first-rate mind can “hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time” and still function.

The last part matters most. You don’t hold both ideas so you can sit still. You hold both and still act.

This is not only a nice quote. In a 2018 study in the Academy of Management Journal, Ella Miron-Spektor and colleagues measured a “paradox mindset”: how far people accept tensions, and even get energy from them, instead of forcing an either/or answer. People with this mindset performed better and were more innovative. The effect was strongest when time and money were tight. People who thought in either/or terms struggled under the same pressure.

Time and money are always tight in a startup.

How it works for me

1. The signal. I feel overwhelmed and pulled in two directions. I put pressure on myself to choose.
2. The mistake. I assume I must pick one side. Most of the time, no choice needs to be made.
3. The move. I say “both are true” and give each side its weight, even when they seem to contradict.
4. The result. I see the whole picture. If a decision is still needed, it feels calmer and more logical.

Here is what that looks like with my own progress:

If I look at

Only the gap ahead

I feel hopeless, stuck. I focus on what's wrong and how hard it all is.

If I look at

Only the progress

I feel over-confident. I stop learning and miss my real gaps.

If I look at

Both

I feel clear. I see my strengths and weaknesses, and act on them.

Holding both showed me something neither half could. Almost all of my progress is in building. Almost all of my gap is in distribution: getting people to know my business (Acumen Logic) exists. So the next step is not more building. It is to keep what works and put my effort where I am weak.

Where it doesn’t work

This is not a rule for every choice.

Big decisions often have a right answer. “What should I spend the next six months on?” is not a case of two true feelings. It probably has a best option. There, I only borrow one part of this idea: look at both options openly, without bias, before choosing.

It is not an excuse. When my LinkedIn outreach stalled, two things were true. My drive dropped because the work had stopped teaching me anything. And my volume was too low. The first doesn’t cancel the second. Holding both means owning both.

It works best in smaller moments, when you feel lost or confused:

• I’m proud of what I built // It hasn’t made real money yet.
• I want to grow fast // I need rest and sleep, or I stop learning.
• I’m ambitious // I can be happy with where I am now.

What I’m starting

I don’t have a habit for this yet. Here is the one I’m starting.

First, get a clear head. Meditation, a quiet room, a walk: whatever slows your mind down. This step is not optional. If you go into a review looking only at the gap, you’ll feel hopeless. If you go in looking only at the progress, you’ll write down what you want to hear, not what is true.

Then, two columns:

Step 1Get a clear head first: meditation, a quiet room or a walk.

So far

3 things that got better

1

2

3

Further to go

The 1 biggest gap

Gap

One action next week

Five minutes, once a week. I’ll report back on whether it changes what I do.

Which two true things are you stuck between right now?