After the Big Bang
Time Space Warp #71
Hey—It’s Toffer.
In the beginning, there was light.
Not passion.
Estimated read time: 3 minutes
Every project has its own big bang—the spark that makes the whole thing exist. It’s often mistaken for passion. It feels big, like everything is about to change. But that first burst is just ignition. Movement without clarity. Energy with no information.
Most beginnings look powerful only because they’re new.
When the glow settles, the real structure appears. Missed calls. Uneven revenue. Gaps you didn’t see because momentum covered them. The parts of the work you couldn’t see while the excitement was blinding you. This is the first honest reading of what you built.
People often confuse this moment for “losing passion.”
What actually fades is the story they attached to the beginning.
Once that dissolves, the truth of the work steps forward.
Founders who keep going don’t rely on emotion. They build capability. They fix pricing. Simplify workflows. Remove noise. Improve decisions. Competence becomes the gravity of the work—the pull that forms its structure after the initial burst.
Passion can be measured by consistency. “Kung gusto, maraming paraan…” is obvious in the pattern of decisions.
Every business goes through cycles: expansion, contraction, disorder, correction. Policy shifts. Supplier failures. Rising costs. Changing demand. Some treat these events like signs to exit. Others recognize them as the natural physics of operating.
A few questions usually clarify things:
Which parts of this still matter on a bad month?
Which skills am I willing to refine, repeatedly?
Which recurring problems don’t push me away?
If operations steadied—and I improved—would I stay?
The answers are simple once you stop expecting the early spark to tell you what to do.
Passion is never at the start.
It emerges later—when the noise drops, when competence forms, when the work fits how you naturally operate. When you’re no longer chasing excitement but building something sound.
The big bang gets you started.
The part that survives pressure…maybe that’s passion.
Your Friend in Time,
Toffer