Focus vs Tunnel-vision

Only Dead fish go with the flow. While on the sides in calm waters, the smaller ones live. In between lie the beasts who traverse the deep rapids and the calm shallows.

Some time 3 months ago, with bombings and an unstable skirmish happening between our country and the bombs that keep pushing across, I started considering the current position I was in.
ps: Remember that a month before we had realized that our current approach wasn’t working, so we had to pivot somewhere.

1. The physical position I was in. Me in the city and my crew mate “ The Commander In Chief of all things Design” in the mountains and bombs between us lol.
   With the country limited, me and her were not finding the rhythm for working properly. Before the bombs we were pivoting, and with that even our work had to switch.

2. The position Tipper was in.
   What does it mean to pivot? I have been doing that any chance I could over the past few years. But this time there was more weight, the weight of a member of the team. The responsibility of others truly comes with its own accountability.

3. The position the small businesses are in.
   I am building a platform designed around small businesses and how they would grow within their niche community. What would that look like when bombs are falling left right and across.

So I made the decision which makes sense. And found me an office closer to the crew mates. Those days there were two. “The social media support “ and “The Commander in Chief of all things Design”. These two were the pillars of our move. Me and the commander will be moving forward with the new space: Considering its multiple uses and the new structure we will be building around. Step by step we were building the image of the space, the 2 goals we will accomplish with it

1. Goal number 1: we get an office and a space for me to be consistent and present.
   See the previous setup was coffee shops and co working spaces. It was really difficult to maintain stability when your mood varies based on what you are working on. When I was coding I did it in different places. When I was writing, I went to others, when I was processing my thoughts …. So I had an office which was basically the whole city.
   So when it came to Tipper and the fact that after 2 years I was still not succeeding in onboarding people; I had to consider that my instability in living and working could be a factor 😟

2. Goal number 2: the space will be the first entity on Tipper and we will build a community around it.
   Remember onboarding “Entities and businesses” on Tipper was proving hard, energy consuming and very resistant. So our pivoting structure could either be events or communities. After much debate with the commander, we decided to do community first because the research was there, we just had to test the design and implementation of the platform.

3. Goal number 3: the space will double as a co creation space. So we’ll use it for the purpose of onboarding people on the platform through the community and researching events by empowering people to use the space for their own programs and projects.

So, April 2026. We opened The G.A.F. “Guilds Adventurers and Frontiers”
Since Tipper’s community are the entities themselves, we started reconsidering our approach to the communities: the community around the “co creation space” was our main goal for the month. It felt like we were opening a new startup that will be the support for the predecessor. So we went through the process/protocol we had been building around it.
Naturally it’s all about the questions we ask

1. We ask enough questions around the new place
   ( since it’s finally starting to take shape, then we can build around that image instead of only in lala land )while adjusting

2. We asked around the brand structure and who we would want to build this community around and who would be wanting to come to this place ( the persona around the clients.)

3. Values, mission, vision,principles and how they translate from tipper while still keeping their own mark. ( approaching the values from a different look.)

4. Ultimately the business model and what we are considering.

But now the nomad life is over. At the beginning, it took me a while to adjust and work from there. To tell you the truth, I still have trouble sustaining long days working there. But I blame it on the weather. I’m lucky that the area I am in has a small concept shop that allows me to come work there when I want to be inspired. Now we have a space to connect with the people that will start working with us and having legitimacy around it. So when we considered the office, one mission was completed fast. ( since it was literally building and designing the space ) while the others were more of a long term approach and feedback loops.

Now to the past 3 months. From May to August, we built the place and started redesigning the user flow on the platform using The G.A.F. as the core. We were super focused. As for me, when things are moving, I tend to start taking more time to consider the parts and the choices I am making. See this sheds light on the variables that are happening around you. Somewhere around the line I wrote a thought and elaborated on it with myself.
The difference between tunnel vision and focus.
While moving, it felt like we were focused. But the truth is we were stuck in a tunnel. Yes I take space to observe, but how far am I from the current box ? How far am I within the current box which is the decision I took, the actions I’m taking in the new direction I’m exploring ?

From the opportunities that are opening up after the conception of the idea; to the big discrepancies surrounding the feelings or inspiration or epiphany and its translation into the shared world. The time in between the breakthrough and the product lives the choices made, the actions chosen and the decisions taken.

In the midst of what I would call chaos, the new work processes, and how to set up a good business model that makes sense for the new space, I found the gaps of the current structure. Within the discovery process of how it connects to Tipper, how it onboards people,and how we could be approaching it; I found myself frozen and stagnant.. A lot of moving parts were happening, and the only way was to handle them one thing at a time. Being inexperienced maybe or stressed out, The moments were causing friction, and sometimes inflating over reasons that have no connection to the work itself. When everything we spoke of needed to be defended, even my body was screaming we had a problem..

See the nomadic life had come with freedom for me and my crew mate. In an era of freelancers, me and her had chosen to anchor ourselves. Day after day tensions rose and fell. Energy was dispersed in all directions. We endured for the vision, until we realized that our commitments were differing. In a time of peril, I wanted security. And pushed in places I shouldn’t have. By June we had run out of funds, and reapproached Tipper from an entity that should make money, since the one we had just started (The G.A.F) was taking its time building a community. Then we reverted to the one thing we have expertise in, the one thing that we are building Tipper so entities don’t have to build around. We reverted to Social media work 🙃

As we discussed the way we would work, we drifted further. Social media work was against our grain. It felt like we had sold our souls. I took my own course of trying to connect the new work we were forced to do to Tipper. The more solutions and connections I found, the more I was losing the commitment of my crew mate. It was not just about onboarding entities and small businesses, it was about how their existence translates to Tipper and the work we had to do. Work which was different than the one which we did before ultimately finalizing the rift between us. The new work had depth and new learnings, all further away from design that originally discussed. And since the build of Tipper would be a supportive role to our current goals, there was no point for us to move forward together.

Between the socials we were uploading on the platform and the tension behind the new work, I saw myself rejecting everything. In the real world I was still courteous and social. But I was very much distant and on edge. A whole lot has changed over 6 months. I was so much in the flow, surfing the edges of all the decisions surrounding me; That I had forgotten to take a real break.

This July is when I did take the break. For a week straight all I did was write down where I am, my thoughts, my position mentally, emotionally and conceptually regarding my work. I split up all the things I was doing and isolated them so I would be able to give full attention to the fact that I was in that office space. Spent most of the days reading the articles I have placed on hold because I was “ Busy”,and restructured every goal and plan back to including only me, relying on only me.

See misunderstood energy burns itself dry, while understood energy is utilised to breathe more life into this world which, in its own self, generates more energy.
What looked like focus was actually tunnel vision.
What looked like a shared vision was a misunderstood one.
With a new direction as the only functional option, there was nothing to do but restructure.

1. How do I feel?
   Truthfully I feel lighter than I have ever been, more clear after I took all that time to just write down my thoughts.

2. What is the difference?
   Now there are targets that fulfill goals monthly and quarterly which create value for small businesses.
   Now there are goals which have already started showing monetisation results.

See I explained focus as being able to see exactly what needs to be done, but the thing I had no understanding of was the intention behind the attention. Yes I was able to give my full attention to the work that needed to be done. To the dynamic of the crew and to the space and its developments. but action requires intention with attention not separate. if it was intention alone, then it will be a force without aim. If it was attention alone then it would be a direction without any force. And in my approach I had given the intention at the beginning then abdicated the responsibilities of following up. By just giving the work attention, I had stopped being present with the flow and my movements. I had surrendered to the actions.

Now yes, the surrender itself is favorable. But somewhere within the process needed to be feedback points or intentionally structured spots where I detached completely. And for the past 3 plus years I have failed to make a habit of that. Yes, every 2 weeks we would reflect, every week I would stand alone and reflect. But I consumed, breathed and lived my work. Everything I did was work. So even when I was reflecting, I was still reflecting within the realm I created for myself. And how am I to approach my vision if I am not looking at it from a clear perspective on a structured occasion. How am i to build my reality if i am getting lost in the shared world more often than in my own version of it.

Today I am grateful. It genuinely feels like I was set up to see this world differently. For the current approach and the project is just an in between that will function as the bridge between my work and the world. The only difference is that I will be the one helping Entities with their communities and leveling up. I will be the one that builds the strategies and structures they will test and mitigate with feedback and resources as a value proposition. They will give me the proper data, to design Tipper for a much smoother experience for other Entities to onboard.

Above on the chart of the “ Law of diffusion of innovation” I now have value to give my innovators. Over the next few months, we will start testing Tipper with me as a mediator. Testing the strategies, and understanding the data to be discovered and connected, so Small businesses could experience stability.

I feel more confident, yet more vulnerable. How am I to gain experience if I do not expose myself to the world? After 3 years researching and trying to avoid the social media scene with small businesses, it was only when I had to move towards it that I discovered such a missing link. Towards helping the entities I work with and small businesses in building their branding and strategy on platforms like youtube, instagram and Tiktok. Seriously…what a roundabout way for me to come to have my eyes opened.

First I found a designer, then when we finished designing and couldn’t sell, we found a pivoting point for the community. Last month, for the sake of a better business model, we have pivoted again, and now I am alone . Sailing the seas waiting to see what will be discovered on the next port I land on.

The world is still vast and the seed of my efforts is starting to find its roots.