Running a Company, Flying Commercial Planes, and He's Never Stressed. I Didn't Believe it Either

I spent 35 minutes trying to catch this guy in a lie. I failed.

Meet Pau. He started a travel company at 22 with zero experience in marketing, finance, or managing people. Twelve years later that company had over 300k customers and got acquired by one of Spain's biggest media groups.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, while the company was still his full time job, he decided to also become a commercial airline pilot. Not as a hobby. He is a 737 captain right now, flying real planes with real passengers, while still running growth for the company he built.

Two jobs that would break most people. So I asked him straight up. How are you not a complete wreck right now.

His answer made me rethink how I've been running my own thing.

He does not believe in managing stress. He says the goal is to never let it build up in the first place. His actual rule is stupidly simple. Look at your real options, make the best call you can with the information you have, and if it goes wrong, that is not a reason to beat yourself up. You did what you could. Move on.

Here is the part that got me though. I asked him about mental health, expecting the usual answer. Meditation, journaling, cold showers, whatever. He said none of that. He said the real trick is to never let one single thing carry all your weight. He has two demanding jobs, a family, and friends he protects time for on purpose every week. When one thing gets heavy, everything else is still standing under him.

Compare that to most of us building solo, where the business is the only pillar we've got. One bad week and the whole thing collapses on us mentally, because there is nothing else holding the weight.

I also made him pull out his phone and check his screen time live on camera.

It was not even turned on.

He just laughed and said he lives on social media anyway. No shame, no forced digital detox story. The guy is not optimizing himself into oblivion, he is just living a life that happens to not need constant repair.

He also told me his biggest regret from building the company was not funding rounds gone wrong or bad hires. It was not spending enough time with friends in the early days. That one hit different coming from someone who actually made it.

His advice for anyone starting something right now: have fun, and have great people around you while you do it. Not growth hacks. Not fundraising tips. Just that.

I've been building online for a while now and I still catch myself treating my own sanity as optional whenever things get busy. Talking to Pau made me question that a lot.

Full interview is out now if you want the whole thing, COVID, the acquisition, all of it. Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOgfvM2Bnts&t=1614s

Question for IndieHackers out there: Do you actually protect time outside the business, or does everything else quietly disappear the second things get intense. Be honest, I want to know I'm not the only one who struggles with this.