MS

Hello, I’m Michael Sliwinski, founder of Nozbe - to-do app for business owners and their teams. I write essays, books, work on projects and I podcast for you using #iPadOnly in #NoOffice as I believe that work is not a place you go to, it’s a thing you do. More…

Michael 4.0 - redesigned and happier than ever

🎂Birthday

Today I’m turning 40. Forty. Yep, that’s four full decades of life for you right there. I can’t believe how quickly time flies. When I was a child, I used to think this was a monumental milestone… when I’ll be very very old… and yet here we are and I don’t feel that old. I feel great. Actually, I feel the best I’ve ever been. In this post I want to sum it up a little and express how grateful I am for turning forty today.

Michael 4.0 - redesigned and happier than ever

I’ve redesigned myself a little…

To honor my forty and as a result of my recent pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela (about which I’m going to both blog and talk on the podcast pretty soon), I’ve grown a beard. Something my father has had all his life. It’s not definite, I still feel strange about having facial hair… but for now I think it’s a great way of celebrating this milestone.

The funny thing is, that this year, there’s more to number 4 than meets the eye….

Michael 4.0 launching Nozbe 4.0…

My business is good. We’ve been having a slower year now that we’re about to launch Nozbe 4.0, but I can’t complain. People still love our product. I’ve got a great team behind me and we’re actually hiring new people just this week… and after 12 years of doing this I feel like we’re just getting started as we’re rewriting the whole app and business from scratch. We’re on a mission to help small teams do great things… and I can’t believe I get to be doing my job every day…

I get to work on stuff I’m passionate about. On something I deeply care for. With all 5 loves right there: I love what I do, for the people I love (our amazing customers), with people I love (my team), also I love the way I do it (#NoOffice) and I love the outcome of all this (including the money that it brings giving my team, me and my family the safety and comfort of not worrying much about that kind of stuff and not needing to raise VC money).

With 4 girls at home…

I’ve been married to my wife for the last 14 years and we’ve got 3 amazing daughters. Yep, this means I get to share my life with 4 women every single day. I get to love and be loved by 4 women day in and day out. I’m blessed.

Despite the age, I’m in the best shape of my life. Practicing regularly 4 sports!

It’s all in your head. In your mind. I’m forty yet I’m in the best shape of my life. I’m lean and fit (last year I finished my 10th Olympic-distance triathlon) and I’m getting ready to do an Ironman 70.3… and I just feel great. Yes, sometimes my old knee injury speaks up. Yes, I need to do regular yearly health checkups… but apart from that I get to regularly practice three… or even four sports! And all this while running a business and raising a family!

Thanks for being part of my life and for cheering me on!

If you’re reading this, thanks for being around, caring for me and supporting me. I know this post sounds like a self-congratulatory manifest and in a sense it is. After all, it’s my birthday today! Just cut me some slack, will you?

But what it really is…. it’s a way of me being grateful and thankful for the life I get to live and to remind us all that we should count our blessings.

Count. Your. Blessings.

I’m turning forty today and I get to do it while being happy, healthy, loved and doing what I love every single day.

I wish the same feeling for you. Thank you for being a part of my life.

Here’s to another forty and (hopefully) more!

Monday, May 20, 2019 /forty/