Venture Athlete & International Expansion Expert | Thriving as Generalist in a Specialized Economy

I’m Dominik, founder, athlete, & creator. A proud generalist. This is my story: 

For the last 7 years, I helped bootstrap one startup from 0 to 1M in revenue and built the international business from scratch for one of Europe’s fastest growing EdTech companies (50 -> 240 employees in my three years there).

All while competing at the highest level of the beautiful sport of Lacrosse, including an appearance for the German National Team at the 2022 World Games (the Olympics’ little brother).

While my professional achievements may seem more impressive on paper, representing Germany on an international stage is the feat that I’m most proud of.

I wasn’t very athletic up until my mid-twenties. Very little talent, but a lot of injuries to make up for it.

Until one day, I started working with a personal trainer. He helped me break down the fundamentals I needed to fix.

I worked hard, and I worked consistently. Showed up to every practice, every gym session. Did my recovery & mobility work daily.

4 years later, I made the national team roster.

The potential was in me. But it needed help unlocking.

Throughout my entire career, I’ve also helped humans unlock their potential, just in different ways:

- By teaching people in rural Rwanda and Brazilian homeless shelter how to make glasses for less than $1, and how to build a business around it
- By bringing unemployed nurses from Italy to Germany and teaching them German, opening a completely different career path for them
- By expanding the leading operating system for schools throughout Europe, so that education becomes more digital and thus accessible
- By writing about my experiences online and sharing them with the world

In late 2023, I made the decision to quit my cozy, well-paid, full-time job that fit my profile perfectly.

I'm on a mission to build my own portfolio career - and help others to unlock theirs. Join me on my journey towards building a portfolio of cashflow-positive, impact-driven businesses.

These businesses have one goal: help others unlock their potential. Just like my personal trainer did for me.

I wish that some of the best portfolio company owners turned creators had documented their journey from day 1, and not retrospectively.

So that’s what I’m doing.

I write for generalists like myself, who want to make a living in a specialized economy without specializing themselves. 

You can do more than one thing in your life. 
Let’s design that life together. 

Sign up for my newsletter here: www.dominiknitsch.com/newsletter

Dominik Nitsch

"Life is half over by 23" sounds like an insane take, but I think it has some substance to it. Here's why: 

When you're 5, each year represents 20% of your life. 
When you're 10, 10%. 
Etc.

With each passing year, the relative increase in experience slows down. I'm 32 now, so the current year represents ~3% of my entire life so far. And it's just gonna become less. 

So according to Sam, my life is already 75% over. Unacceptable. 

Here's what you can do about it: 

1/ Implement landmark events 
Some days, even some weeks, I ask myself: "wtf did I do today?" and can't really think of anything. It was just a normal workday with no specific things worth remembering. 

Chain too many of those days, and time passes by incredibly fast. 
But if you do something out of routine (like attending a sports event, traveling to a new place, meeting an interesting person, trying a new skill) – you'll remember that. And the more landmark events you have in a year, the longer the year will feel in retrospect. 

2/ Diversify, diversify, diversify 
If you just do one thing, it's much easier to get stuck in a rut. If you do several things really well, progress accumulates not just in your main job, but also in your side hustles. 

Subjectively, this makes life feel longer. You look back on a year and think: "damn, I did all this in three different disciplines? that's cool." 

3/ Engineer anti-routines into your life
I'm all for having a routine; the best work gets done in a familiar setting. 

But as with everything in life: "everything in moderation, including moderation". If you always stick to your routine, life passes by fast. So build anti-routines into it. These could be: 
→ setting an objective to travel to 2 new countries every year
→ consciously breaking your normal daily routine 1-2 days per week
→ meeting one new person every week 

Novelty makes life longer. 

That being said, Sam has a point. Life's short. Don't waste it doing things that mean nothing to you.

Founder @ Generalyst | building talent infrastructure for early-stage startups | 1,245 generalists read my newsletter to future-proof their career.

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Specialization is the most overrated career advice of the last decade.

“Pick a niche.”
“Go deep.”
“Become the expert in one thing.”

What sounds great in theory, doesn’t work in practice anymore. 

It locks 20-somethings in boxes they shouldn’t lock themselves into yet. Most people in their 30s don’t know what they want. How do you expect high school and university grads to know that? 

The best way to find out what you want is to sample different things. 

This allows you to:
→ build a broad foundation
→ find out what you’re actually world-class at
→ get pattern recognition 

Knowing what you’re uniquely good at via trial and error is the ultimate way of “sharpening the axe”. 

Yeah, you might be falling behind compared to someone embarking on a medical or law career. 

But down the line, you’ll have a life that works exactly for you. 

Maybe it’s one job.
Maybe it’s a portfolio of jobs, turning into a Portfolio Career.

The possibilities are endless, but just picking one thing at 18 and sticking with it for the rest of your life sounds like a pretty bad strategy if you ask me. 

PS: I wrote a few articles about building a Portfolio Career. If that sounds interesting to you, you can download my portfolio career playbook here: https://lnkd.in/dGZaPsrv

Founder's Associates exist on a spectrum – from being purely operational to being a proper sparring partner. The breakdown: 

Want your own Founder's Associate? That's our bread and butter at Generalyst. We work with A+ generalist talents of all the three levels listed here. Faster than your own recruitment process, cheaper than your headhunter. 

PS: Want me to do one for Chief of Staff, too? Comment below.

Simon Veithen and I sat down on Friday to discuss: 

→ what the hell a generalist is, and why it's the best way to prepare for the future
→ how you can acquire meta skills 
→ why job safety is an illusion
→ how to achieve non-linear results 

... and much more. 

Listen to the full 1h episode here: https://lnkd.in/dNdxH_9s

How to identify high-performing organizations: 

"The single best indication of a high-performing culture is the prevalence of former entrepreneurs. It usually portends a high-agency organization equipped with people mentally and emotionally prepared for a startup journey. Figure out what percentage of a company’s employee base previously launched businesses of their own, and try to understand why they’ve decided to forgo their independence to contribute to a new mission." – Mario Gabriele

It takes a lot as a founder to subordinate yourself again (been there, done that). When an organization manages to attract these kind of people, there's usually something special going on. 

If you're a former founder and wanna join such an organization – there's a few in the Generalyst client portfolio :)

Content Strategist & Brand Messaging Craftswoman 💡 I help brands build meaningful relationships with the people who matter. ✨ Sharing strategic ways to create value-packed content and stellar brand messaging.

As a digital marketing strategist, I help brands build meaningful relationships with stakeholders and scale them through digital channels. I run Valchanova.me, a hub for my consulting practice and a blog on marketing, digital strategy, and growth.

My core competencies include strategic research and planning, content marketing, brand messaging, and copywriting. I have worked with brands in various industries, from e-commerce to SaaS, from business services to luxury design. I have also trained more than 2,000 students and spoken at conferences across Europe. In my spare time, I organize popular science events with Ratio, fueling the passion for science in those who don't know they have it yet.

I aim to share my knowledge and experience with digital professionals and inspire them to create impactful and engaging marketing campaigns. I am passionate about words which is the building block of both content marketing, brand messaging, and copywriting. You can easily get in touch by contacting me at v@valchanova.me. Read more at https://valchanova.me.

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