Find What You Want to Do First, Then Plan Your Life: Using PIVOT to Explore Your Career

A question from someone fresh out of school:

Undergrad in electrical engineering, master's in business administration, both at decent schools. Just graduated at the start of the year. Currently working as a project manager and operations lead at a tech company. My life keeps jumping around, never on the conventional track. I feel like I'll start a company someday, but I don't know what to build. No topic, and my skills don't feel solid enough either.

I know there's no "ready" day for entrepreneurship. But while I keep PIVOTing, I watch friends land beautiful jobs in tech or finance, and I can't help wondering if I shouldn't be following my heart so much. I keep thinking I need to find work where I can hit flow and get a sense of achievement from it — but right out of school, I just slammed into the thick wall of reality.

Right now I'm lost. I can't picture much of a long-term plan. How should I set goals?

Bottom line up front: PIVOT (a startup term meaning "to turn") is a necessary process before you've found your answer — it's not failure. Research from the U.S. Census Bureau shows the most successful founders are 45 on average, not 25. Before then, there's only one thing you can do — try as much as possible, collect as many cards as you can, and wait until something you can't not do finally surfaces.

Why "I want to start a company" is itself a warning sign

If you feel like you'll start a company someday, it means you expect yourself to be like those celebrity CEOs: you want your own stage.

I have to say it: this is dangerous.

The successful founders I know:

They know what they want to do — they've found their life's mission
They can't not do it — and that's why they ultimately chose entrepreneurship
They turned the thing they want to do into "their business."

I also know plenty of founder friends who don't have "something they especially want to do, can't not do."

But they started companies anyway.

A big reason they did was to prove to themselves they could, and to have their own stage.

On their entrepreneurial road, they constantly change tactics and direction — because there's no clear thing they want to do. So when the wind shifts, they chase whatever's hot.

The trends never stop changing: Big Data, Apps, FinTech, SaaS, Blockchain, Metaverse, NFT, ESG, AI, GenAI.

My background actually isn't far from yours — engineering grad turned PM.

I've started three companies. All three failed. What I want to say is: entrepreneurship is a means, not an end.

More precisely: we start companies in order to achieve some goal.

Until you find that goal or the thing you want to do, I don't recommend you actually start a company.

Why is 45 the best age to start a company, not 25?

According to research published in American Economic Review: Insights (2020), "Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship", by U.S. Census Bureau economist Javier Miranda and MIT innovation professor Pierre Azoulay among others, the average age of America's most successful founders is 45.

Founders in their twenties have the lowest probability of building a top-tier company.

Put simply: 40+ is the prime age for entrepreneurship.

Why? Because experience, credibility, technical skill, networks, and market insight have all matured.

Of course, I once imagined being Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg too.

BUT — they're geniuses who beat out countless other elites. Most people, even most elites, get filtered out.

If you want to start a company — even if there's no "ready" day — at the very least, you need a direction.

And that direction takes enough attempts. You'll fail, take wrong turns, find new opportunities, get discouraged.

If you go through the grind and still want to do this thing, then it's not too late to start the company.

That takes time. But if a real opportunity actually shows up — don't wait. Start now.

Constant PIVOT vs. "making it"

Before finding direction, we need to keep PIVOTing (startup slang for "turning").

It took me almost 10 years to land on my direction in 2021: education.

Even after finding the direction, I spent 3 more years trying things to nail down concrete goals:

Teaching-assistant software, online course design tools
Personal media: professional speaker, online courses, course design

While my life kept PIVOTing, I worked as:

A manager at an explosives company that mined stone, watching my workers plant charges and dig out rock every day
A research assistant and PM on a Taiwan National Science and Technology Council drone-AI team, flying drones along the river dike every day
Co-founder and COO of a tech startup, drown in meetings every day
A course-design instructional designer at an ed-tech startup, writing curriculum and lesson plans every day

I tried each of these for over a year before deciding whether it was what I wanted to do long-term.

You might feel like your classmates and friends have "made it" — but everyone has their own homework.

I've seen plenty of people who, after middle age, have everything (house, car, family) and suddenly feel completely empty.

I've also met freelancers whose lives are reasonably smooth and who, despite not making much money, are still doing what they love.

They have doubts too — especially when they see how friends from the same cohort are doing. They ask me: should I leave my comfort zone and go back to a regular job?

Some people never question whether the path they're on is what they actually want — they just push their life forward along social expectations.

Some people, even on the path they truly want, still get shaken by mainstream values and second-guess themselves.

PIVOT does make the early stages feel lost, because lots of mental collisions happen.

Do I? Don't I? Like it? Don't like it? The more you see, the less you feel you know what you want.

But as you see and do enough, and slowly start to feel happy, the road ahead gradually clears up.

PIVOT can take a long time — possibly 10+ years — but in the end, we live happier lives.

To compress this into three things you can remember:

PIVOT isn't failure — it's the necessary process before you find your answer
The right choice comes from enough attempts, not from planning it out in advance
Past experiences that seemed unrelated will become assets once you've found your direction

If we knew the answer from the start and only had to push toward it, that wouldn't be life.

The hard part is: we don't know the answer, and there isn't even a standard answer.

The hardest thing about life is: how do you make the right choice?

To make the right choice, you have to explore as many things as possible — one by one — and find a choice you can "live with."

Humans see other people's strengths more easily, and our own weaknesses more easily.

Behind "making it" can be a workplace culture you'd find completely intolerable.

In banking or government, work can be tedious and inefficient — you might never adapt. Lots of people there don't question their boss, second-guess what the boss wants, and just follow orders. That's very different from an efficiency-driven tech startup. It's deeply bureaucratic.

I worked in government once. I genuinely couldn't adapt to that mode.

The other person might really have a nice title and a nice paycheck.

But flip it around — if it were you, would you actually be happy? Is that really the life you want?

I PIVOTed for years too. I doubted myself, wondered why things kept going sideways.

But once you find what you really want to do, everything you did before becomes an asset.

Why flow isn't the goal — it's just a signal of whether you like something

I think the biggest problem for people nowaday is this:

Some things are extremely hard, but we feel we must have them — otherwise we're "not okay."

Because knowledge is so accessible, we easily encounter advanced concepts like FLOW.

For me personally, I actually enter FLOW "easily" while working.

That's not because I'm somehow better — it's about mindset and how I frame work. I just default to focus mode, and with coffee, the effect is even sharper.

When I'm writing curriculum, prepping a talk, or replying to this letter — when I'm "solving a problem" — I more easily slide into FLOW.

I enter FLOW easily, but I'm also easily interrupted. Recovery takes a long time. Focus and motivation can drop to zero. I can even fall into long stretches with no drive to work at all. The swings are extreme.

FLOW isn't the cure, and it isn't the goal. It's just a measure of whether we like something.

If you can't enter FLOW, three reasons:

You haven't yet found what you want to do
You haven't done it long enough
You're rushing — the more you push, the harder it gets

FLOW in sports is also called the Zone. The harder you try to get in, the harder it is to actually get in.

Take me as an example: I love giving talks about teaching.

But you know what? I gave a speech in middle school, was terrified out of my mind, and swore I'd never speak on stage again.

Then in my late 20s and 30s, I watched movies about Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg — celebrity CEOs presenting on stage. I thought it was insanely cool. I wanted to be like them, standing under the spotlight, holding court (seriously XD).

But going on stage still made me nervous. Self-introductions still made me nervous. Pitching my own project still made me nervous.

There was no FLOW at that point — just gritting my teeth and going. Over time, I got better.

As I gave more campus talks, the stage fright eased. Last month I landed my first corporate keynote — 30 hours of prep for 2 hours of speaking.

During the talk, I hit FLOW mode — that Steve-Jobs-introducing-the-iPhone feeling.

(Quietly: at the opening of the corporate talk, I actually stuttered from nerves and had to fake my way through. Pulled it off in the end XD.)

FLOW is just a way to verify whether you like something.

If you don't enter FLOW, that's okay — as long as you're sure you like it.

And if you only like the result (a great talk) but not the process (the prep and the in-the-moment grip), that's also fine. You don't have to like every part. You just need to be clear about where your goal is.

Why "long-term planning" is actually a fake question

Why do I call it a fake question? Logic:

We first have something we want to do
Long-term planning exists so we can keep doing it

Things like FLOW and long-term plans aren't necessities of "a good life."

You might feel they're nice to have. But really, they serve "some other thing."

Our lives don't become more meaningful simply because we have long-term plans and easily enter FLOW.

The reality is the reverse — this is putting effect before cause:

We have something we want to do, and that's why we have a long-term plan
We have something we want to do, and that's why we more easily enter FLOW
With something we want to do, then our lives have meaning

So why do we feel FLOW and long-term plans are essential to a successful life?

Because FLOW and long-term plans are the only "indicators" we can reference.

We can't know how someone else "found what they love" — that process varies wildly from person to person.

We "confuse the verifying indicator with the thing we have to do."

Arch's personal advice

This is going to sound familiar, but: I recommend you spend more time trying different things.

Early on, I loved going to Meet Taipei to see startup expos and meet founders from different industries. It gave me a lot of inspiration.

Or through reading and online courses, learn skills like marketing, writing, public speaking, finance — they bring different stimulation and perspective.

You might also want to join a hackathon. Not long ago the Telegram and TON communities just wrapped one up.

Hackathons are great places to meet people from circles you don't usually run in. You can also just show up and form a team on the spot.

My honest advice: don't rush to find the answer. Enjoy the present first.

Of course, if your goal is to start a company, you'll need a team.

You'll probably need engineers, marketing, design, planning.

Early-stage startups have no money, so either you do everything yourself, or you have partners you trust deeply enough to grind unpaid alongside you.

My current partners are people I've known for 10+ years. We share the conviction. No money, still okay.

PS: Uh, no money is not really okay — I still have to pay for servers, QQ.

Final advice on whether to start a company

If you want to start a company, collect enough cards. Before you actually start, the more cards you hold, the higher your success rate.

Treat everything you're doing right now as collecting cards. Don't worry about whether they're useful — you don't know if you'll need them. Some things show up to help you in the most unexpected ways.

FAQ

Q: I'm 25 and want to start a company. Is it too early? A: Not too early — but don't rush into actually starting one. Research shows the most successful founders are 45 on average, which means you have 20 years to "collect cards." Treat every job right now as accumulating resources, and wait until something you can't not do surfaces XD.

Q: What does PIVOT mean? A: PIVOT is a startup term meaning "to turn." It refers to actively trying different directions, industries, and roles before you've found your answer. I PIVOTed for almost 10 years before locking in education as my direction in 2021, and only confirmed project management education in 2025.

Q: I can't enter FLOW — does that mean I'm not suited to this job? A: Not necessarily. Three common reasons: you haven't yet found what you really want to do, you haven't done it long enough, or you're rushing. FLOW is a "do you like it" signal — not a measure of work ability.

Q: My classmates and friends are "making it." Should I go back to the conventional path? A: First, look at what's "inside" their lives. I've seen plenty of people who, after getting the house, car, and family, still feel empty. I've also seen freelancers with low income but high happiness. Behind "making it" might be a workplace culture you'd find completely intolerable. You first have to confirm whether that life is the one you actually want — otherwise envy or jealousy is meaningless.