The Walter Mitty Effect

There’s a line in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty that hit me hard:

“To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life.”

In the film it’s the LIFE magazine motto. It asks for proximity, not perfection. It’s an invitation to stop spectating your own life.

I’ve deeply relate to Walter’s early coping mechanism: daydreams and imaginary “larger than life” moments. The cool part is what happens next. His imagined life starts bleeding into his actual life until the daydreams shrink, not because he gave up on them, but because he caught up to them.

That’s the whole thesis of this entry: if you “do the dream,” the need to dream so loudly slows down. And here’s the unsexy truth: the only thing that’s doing the thing is, well, doing the damn thing.

‍

See Behind Walls, Then Walk Through One

“Seeing behind walls” sounds poetic until you meet a very real wall labeled “I’ll start when it’s perfect.” I’ve met that wall. I’ve decorated it. I’ve even designed a logo for it.

Companies love to analyze, brief, and debate themselves into stillness. Translation: they froth over strategy decks while the world passes them by.

The fix is brutal in its simplicity: move. Propose a path. Ship a version. Around here we have a standing rule… if you only point at a problem without taking an action, your impact is net negative. Doing is what sets you apart.

‍

Draw Closer

“Draw closer” is the antidote to founder isolation. The more Nexubis scaled, the more I had to replace proximity theater with real proximity: not hovering over every Figma frame, but getting close to the few decisions that bend the arc, then trusting the team for the rest.

It took firing myself, repeatedly, to make it true. Crazy concept but when you finally let go of the small levers, you actually have hands free for the big ones. Wild. 

Things Dangerous To Come To

Risk looks scary from the couch and sensible at 30 km/h. The moves that changed our trajectory felt “dangerous” on paper and obvious in hindsight: ditching pure hourly for value subscriptions, promoting from within before it felt safe, saying no to tidy money with messy terms.

Progress rarely shows up in a helmet. It shows up when you do the thing that makes your stomach flip and hope you don’t puke. 

‍

Find Each Other

Business is leverage, but it’s also loyalty. The way you show up for clients and the way they show up for you is the long game.

That’s why we keep prioritizing relationships over transactions. People don’t remember “good.” They remember what felt personal, earned, and close. Or bluntly: nobody tells stories about “fine.”

‍

And To Feel

Founders are great at muting themselves in the name of momentum. You can get a lot done that way, but you’ll miss the signal that tells you to pause, redirect, or protect your energy.

Observation is a power move. Step back long enough to see the pattern, then step in where it matters. Your job isn’t to keep every plate spinning. Your job is to decide which plates should be on the damn table in the first place.

‍

Daydream Hygiene

Here’s my current practice for shrinking the fantasy gap:

• Small scary > big vague. If a step makes your stomach flutter, it’s probably the right size.
  
• Ship before you pitch. If you need a deck to justify it, you’re stalling.
  
• Ownership over opinion. If you bring a problem, bring the first move.
  
• Replace yourself again. If a task needs your fingerprints, fix the system, not the symptom.
  

‍

Final Thought

“To see the world” isn’t a travel goal. It’s a proximity goal. Get close to the work, close to the people, close to the truth. Then do the dream until the dream quiets down.

Onwards.