We Can’t Build the Future Without Letting Go of the Past
On moving houses, facing the unknown, and choosing to begin again.
“In the process of letting go, you will lose many things from the past, but you will find yourself.”
— Deepak Chopra
This week, our family has moved houses.
Boxes. Dust. Old memories tucked into corners I hadn’t touched in years. Toys from a different phase. Notebooks from a different company. Versions of myself—frozen in time—sitting quietly on closet shelves.
It’s strange how physical movement can unlock emotional release. A move is never just about the place. It’s about who we were in it. And who we’re becoming next.
Moving forces a reckoning.
We take everything out. We see what we carry. We decide what still belongs—and what must be left behind. That decision, I’ve come to realize, is not just personal. It’s entrepreneurial. It’s spiritual. It’s foundational.
Because every future, every next chapter, requires letting go of something familiar to make space for something new and uncertain.
We all carry too much.
As founders, as parents, as people chasing something bigger than ourselves, we hold on to a lot:
Ideas we’ve outgrown
Goals that no longer fit
Identities we’ve over-identified with
Fears dressed up as “realism”
Relationships and routines that feel safe but stagnant.
We tell ourselves we’ll make the change after the next raise, after the next launch, after the next milestone. But the truth is that most real breakthroughs happen after we make the hard decision and before the outcome is guaranteed.
Just like a move, we don’t get to settle in until we decide what not to bring.
There’s courage in stepping into the unknown.
When I moved from Israel to the UK in 2013 to build Kano, I had no map—just a vision. In my following companies, when I made hard choices to shut down certain products to refocus, it felt like failure—until it felt like freedom.
Each of these transitions forced me to surrender something I thought I needed, to discover something I didn’t know I could have.
It never gets easier. But it gets clearer.
The unknown is not the enemy. Stagnation is.
There’s a cost in holding on.
There is a tax on clinging to what no longer serves:
Teams slow down
Ideas calcify
Ambitions shrink to fit old narratives.
And sometimes the bravest thing we can do for our future is to say: this version of me is done.
Not in shame, not in anger, but in love.
Because what got me here—the decisions, the grit, the trade-offs—were necessary. But that doesn’t mean they’re required for what’s next.
Building begins with release.
Before a new strategy, a new company, a new adventure—there’s always a letting go:
Of the story we thought we’d live
Of the timeline we thought we’d follow
Of the certainty we thought we’d need.
Only then does something new emerge:
A business plan becomes a movement
A risk becomes a life worth living
A house becomes a home.
Make space.
This isn’t really about moving houses. It’s about moving through life as someone committed to building what matters.
We’re all in a season of transformation, whether chosen or thrust upon us.
So here’s a reminder to you and myself:
Let go of the old timelines.
Let go of the false certainty.
Let go of the story that no longer fits.
Make space.
The next version of us—and what we’re building—is waiting on the other side.
Thanks for reading,
Yon
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