Zero to €10M Profit—It Started With a Death Threat, Ended With a Life Lesson

#94 Angelinvesting.it - From idea to Series A - Weekly Newsletter

Dear reader,

Today, I'm stripping away all pretense. What you're about to read is my rawest truth yet – a story that might just shift how you look at your own journey.

"Of course I'll give you credit, Simone. If you don't pay, I'll break your legs."

Those words – straight from the mouth of my Romanian construction contractor – became my wake-up call in 2010. My family's holding company was bone dry, I had just stepped in as CEO, and the only credit I could get came with a side of physical threats. I started calling him my "Romanian bank," half-joking, fully terrified.

Fast forward 13 years. That same company just closed its second consecutive year with over €5 million in profits. Zero debt. A portfolio that actually performs.

Did I nail it? Sure. But here's the brutal truth: I could have done more. Way more. There were times I lost focus, times my grit slipped below what I knew I was capable of. Instead of shooting for the moon, I settled into a trajectory that was... just good enough.

The Good Enough Trap

"Good enough" – these words haunt me. Baudelaire saw boredom as humanity's mortal enemy. But Steve Jobs? He knew something darker: nothing kills potential quite like settling for "good enough."

Excellence demands something paradoxical: the constant rejection of "good enough." It's an emotionally brutal race, this perpetual push for more.

Walking through San Francisco's streets, I felt it – that electric current of perpetual dissatisfaction. An ecosystem where having 10 means wanting 12, having 12 means chasing 13. Always more, never enough.

The Numbers Game: A Mind Shift

Here's how I finally cracked the code between wanting more and finding peace – I turned it all into a game. Strip away money's emotional weight. Make it nothing but a score.

For the game I have built for my holding, NAV (net asset value), yearly yield targets, liquidity and risk barriers – they're just elements in my personal battlefield.

Joy Lives in the Game

My peace comes from seeing this as an intellectual puzzle. The goal? It's there, but it doesn't own my happiness. Hitting my 2025 target won't make me any happier than I am right now. Because guess what? There's always 2026, then 2027, rolling endlessly forward.

My happiness? That's locked into my input. Knowing I'm going all in, giving that 100% – that's my high. Sure, I can't control every outcome. But this journey? As long as I'm breathing, that's mine to own.

Think of it like the gym. You stack weights, count reps, push for progression. Sure, the end game is health, but the real juice? It's in showing up. It's in that post-workout high. It's in dragging yourself there even when Netflix calls louder.

Have a great weekend.

Go build something extraordinary.

Simone

P.S. Plot twist: My "Romanian bank" eventually went bust and headed back home – but hey, at least I kept my legs.

P.P.S. That Joker shot of me? Caught at an afternoon rave in an abandoned IKEA up in North London last Saturday. Unconventional? Maybe. But that's my kind of living life full-throttle.

P.P.P.S. Full disclosure: Those €10+ million in two-year profits? They're paper gains for now – revaluations of assets we're growing and keeping. But they're real enough to count in our numbers game.