Building a VC Fund: Gratitude, Faith, and a Shot at HY.Q
SATURDAY MORNING EDITION
Early Participation and a New Chapter
Good morning, THIRSTY FRIENDS. I hope your week was great! I’ve got HY.Q on my mind. We’re tossing the dice on this next SPV. Does it feel risky? Of course it does. Building early-stage brands always does. But you do it because it’s worth the story, and every bite, every sip, every little gamble gets you closer to something authentic.
Check out HY.Q. Watch the videos. Hell, ask the hard questions. You owe it to yourself if you’re thinking about coming along for this ride. HY.Q has got me excited, and not in the polished, PR-ready way. Real excitement, gut-level.
Gratitude Is the Antidote
Let’s set the deal aside for a minute. There’s something about looking back at your own track record and realizing you’ve been egotistical, driven, and selfish. It’s a hell of a thing. I chased what was next for too long, always devouring what was in front of me just to see what was around the next corner. When you’re wired like that, you miss the flavors of the moment. The chance to actually taste what you have and know who’s at your table.
These days I try to practice gratitude like it matters, every damn day. Some days I’m good at it, most days I’m not. There are mornings I feel lost, afternoons when I’m empty, and evenings that feel like someone shut the kitchen early and left me holding the bill. If you tell me you’ve got it all figured out, cheers. The rest of us are searching for magic. Gratitude helps. It’s the one thing that cuts through the fog, calms the demons, quiets the critic in your head.
What Wisdom Tastes Like
Had breakfast recently with some younger guys. You learn more in sticky diners over burnt coffee and eggs than anywhere else. We talked about gratitude and the way it pairs with maturity. The less you know, the more you think you deserve. The more you see, the more grateful you become. Wisdom isn’t an ingredient you get handed. It’s slow cooked by mistakes and false starts.
Gratitude for me isn’t just about stuff like a house or a car, or not getting scorched in a kitchen fire this morning. It’s about watching things fall apart and then seeing, eventually, how it saved me or led me somewhere better, or just made for a hell of a story later on.
Find peace in the domino effect. The late alarm, the missed subway, the extra wait, stuff that frustrates you but sometimes saves your ass. Control is a myth anyway. Adjust your habits, recalibrate your attitude, and do your best. The world’s going to spin its own way.
Personally, I’m a faith-based kind of man. God. Prayer. Silence. I swap stories with my wife about the next big decision and what it means. We measure everything, then jump. I know many don’t buy it, and that’s fine. The best meals are the ones with different opinions passed around the table. If your life’s working because you do it all yourself, respect. I’ve found more meaning trusting there’s something bigger guiding me.
No Perfection, Just Appetite and Allegiance
None of this means life’s perfect, it’s not and it never will be. Perfection was written up once. The rest of us cook with what we’ve got, and sometimes the recipe fails. You taste it, you learn, you move on. Gratitude grounds you when bitterness creeps in. It keeps you from numbing out when it all gets hard.
I’m grateful for the valleys I’ve walked through. For the scars. For the flavors I didn’t expect. HY.Q is next on the plate. Opportunity, risk, stories in the making.
Stay restless, stay grateful, stay thirsty. If HY.Q tempts you, the table’s open. Pull up a chair. Let me know.
-Andrew