🕺🏻 Muddy water, left to stand, becomes clear

It's been almost a year since my last newsletter. I called it "When to Quit and When to Push Through."

I published 41 newsletters and committed to sending one every Sunday, aiming for 100. But I quit, following my own advice. I had to ask myself whether another push was just pain, which often means growth, or whether it had become suffering.

In that newsletter, I wrote that suffering begins when you keep going not because you believe in what you're doing, but out of fear or inertia. You're drained, disconnected, unable to reflect. That's not grit. It's self-sabotage.

Writing a weekly newsletter had clearly become suffering. I was going through a rough period a year ago, and my response to stress is to do more… and more…

More work, more exercise, more discipline, more content, until you realize the intent behind it all is fear of stopping. As long as you go down swinging, you can give yourself a badge: "I did everything I could."

But muddy water, left to stand, becomes clear. When life feels messy, sometimes the best move is to do less and let things settle.

Less social media, fewer meetings, less reading, less work… and then clarity starts to appear. You begin to see which doors are open and which are closed, and you stop forcing the closed ones open.

That's what the last year looked like for me.

I stepped back from the operational side of CRMchat/Hints and handed leadership to my brother and co-founder, Gleb. We brought in a new co-founder and CPO, and things went well. Today, the business is profitable and growing 15–20% month over month.
I focused fully on AlgoX2. We closed a strong seed round led by BVP and are already working with our first enterprise design partner. What felt abstract a year ago is becoming real.

And I slowed down. Stopped trying to do everything at once. Being constantly busy puts a strain on your nervous system and, in my case, fuels anxiety.

For the last six months, the ups and downs have happened only occasionally, not every other day like before. This calm showed me how much anxiety I had accumulated and how much I was operating with tunnel vision.

No big conclusions, just a reminder. When everything feels muddy, stop stirring. The water clears on its own.

Until next time,
Thank you for still being here
George Levin
^LinkedIn