Ross Rambles

2024 was a year of execution and hard work. It wasn’t as euphoric as 2023, but that is a good thing. It was a year of “reality”, the likes of which I hope to live many more.

It all feels very, very real now – this chapter has become my new reality. I love my work and I love my fiancée (!!!), but that doesn’t make the next steps any less daunting – marriage and realizing Somos’s potential as a sustainable, profitable company are milestones that would make this chapter the most permanent yet. It is a realization of potential that I have always felt I have had that is both exciting but also crystalizing – unless I were to throw everything out the window (again), I have limited the scope of potential possibilities for my future. But one thing that I have learned is that life is about effective decision making, and I’m very happy with the decisions I’m making in this chapter.

Compounding in careers is as real as in investing, and I have been playing catchup with peers in 2024, having started my 3rd professional act from scratch during 2023. So what I don’t want to do is rush things. Steady progress that compounds is the name of the game now, and not thinking about subsequent chapters prematurely. It’s not very much my style, but it’s what I’ve got to do. 

33 years old isn’t a spring chicken anymore. I’m incredibly proud of what I’ve accomplished in the past couple of years, and I now take in my stride what a couple of years ago would have seriously impressed me, but I both have some regrets about how I’ve dealt with the prior chapter of my life (Mesa & Pizza, one of which has already died and another which might be on its last legs), and concerns about how I find the routine and discipline necessary to ensure this current chapter is allowed to compound. 

I need to make sure that I can keep the spark for life alive while executing on the big steps in front of me – not an easy task, but a worthy balancing act to attempt. 

2025 is a “BIG YEAR”. I’m cautiously optimistic about what I’ll be writing a year from now, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about pulling it all off in the manner that I expect to.

Specific 2024 memories:

• Rafting in Cañon del Guejar / waterfall day with Chris
• Training for Tolima – Chingaza and Cerro Tres Cruces
• Cooking Piri Piri chicken with Sebas at the first finca of the year
• BBQ in Sopó with Manuela and the gang
• Oli’s wedding and just feeling good about life – lots of dancing at the beginning of the year
• The last night dancing at Pizza Paraiso
• Tolima – the nerves on day 1, the altitude effects on day 2, the coffee making at 2am on Day 3, making it back to the finca post-summit  – the nap with J and the subsequent lightness of achieving what we set out to achieve
• Wacky-Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube J
• Pergamino Laureles mornings / the weekend farmers market and cooking
• European Summer of Weddings and Parties – Chinchón, Syros, Son Bunyola. Trains in Spain, Boat day with the fam in Mallorca, Turret party with magnums, Scooter riding around Syros.
• Waterfall chasing in Antioquia / Risaralda. Making coffee on the top of the Devil’s Spine / at the top of Zack’s waterfall.
• La Payara at Latora
• Rawayana on the rooftop with Jesus
• J´s surprise birthday Syrian feast
• Vinyl purchases and listening with J
• First lunch at Prudencia in forever with Steven and Buraq
• Making sashimi tuna tostadas at the beach with the fam in Oregon
• Running over the rivers in Portland, through El Retiro in Madrid, and up the canyon in Highland Park
• The morning hike with J before I asked her to marry me, and the weird speakeasy that didn’t even have a bartender when we met up with friends after the proposal
• Villas Tacos in LA
• Eating the Mesa Falafel Burger at Feria Eva
• Fincalympics on the Slip n Slide
• The call from Forrest that Packy was in the round / the gut wrenching feeling when we got a no from an investor we’d gone deep with.
• The fundraising rollercoaster with flights thinking that everything was going to be OK, and nights sweating what we’d do if no one came through. When Altos said no…
• Morning cycles with Dad in Quinta, and cycling back from Dos Passos in Quinta with the whole fam after a couple of bottles of rosé.
• New Years Eve getting champagne drunk with Mum and Dad in Quinta.

Books:

• Wind Up Bird Chronicle
• Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
• I am Pilgrim
• Leviathan Wakes

TV & Film: 

• Shogun, House of The Dragon Season 2, Only Murders in The Building, Band of Brothers
• Dune Part II, Poor Things, Wild Robot

Podcasts & Newsletters:

• Invest Like The Best – especially the Gavin Baker and Micky Malka episodes
• The Rest is Politics – most shows right up until the US election, after which I haven’t listened once
• Not Boring – Vertical Integrator series & Infinity Missions (that talks about Somos!!)

Plans for 2025:

• 10k in sub 52 mins
• 16 pull ups
• Start investing again
• More ownership in Somos /other endeavors
• Work out a creative exit to Mesa – don’t just give up
• Keep the spark alive despite the big “next steps” in front of you
• Get Married!