What Gets You Up in the Morning?

Founding a startup to solve a problem is a big commitment.  Before you launch, you need to carefully examine your heart and motivations to ensure you are ready for the challenge of such a marathon undertaking!

In addition to being a repeat founder myself, lately, I have had the joy of working closely with other founding CEOs. The number of times that we have commiserated and laughed about how we must be a bit crazy to be doing this has reminded me of how important it is to know yourself and examine your heart before leaping into launching a startup. Let me share a few stories to hopefully capture the flavor of what I am talking about:

• A visionary leader who founded a startup rather than just run out and retire from a successful executive career: We – I – have to do something to save this planet! I care about my kids and future grandkids, and if we do not start solving this now, I do not want to think about what this world will be like for them.
  
  
• Highly compensated technologist on the decision not to co-found: I thought I wanted to be a founder because I have worked in several startups – and the founders had the control and could build wealth. But, since I am the sole breadwinner for my family, I just do not think I can risk not making money for a while when it is on my shoulders to provide for them.
  
  
• Passionate healthcare founder-CEO on her motivation for launching a startup: Because I knew this space so well and could so clearly see the painful truth of the current reality, I knew that I just had to jettison my cushy six-figure executive job to develop a real solution to these problems. No one else was going to, but I could see how – and now I am seeing the impact on my clients.

I could go on and on because I know so many founders who have felt that call to solve important problems innovatively.  They followed that call despite the life sacrifices required to do the arduous work required to succeed.

Building a startup is always harder than you can imagine. The high-performing individuals who can succeed as startup founders can also succeed in many other career paths, and those alternative career paths can frequently be less stressful and less likely to fail utterly, so it is worth making sure your passion for the problem you are setting out to solve will keep you going through all the inevitable setbacks, dark nights, and endless challenges of building something out of nothing.

Recently, I was having lunch with an entrepreneurial ecosystem friend who, after a couple of startup journeys, decided he did not want to keep jumping back into the boiling water of startup land. He decided that helping others’ startups would better fit his risk tolerance and work-life priorities. As we discussed our respective journeys, I shared the story of my first time becoming a startup founder. That was over twenty years ago now, but I remember vividly seeking counsel from a neighbor-friend who had founded a startup five years earlier. He tried hard to talk me out of it, raising a whole stream of downsides and issues. It was the opposite of encouraging! At the end of a few hours of conversation, he asked me what I was going to do. I thanked him for his advice – and said I was plowing ahead. He laughed – and became one of my earliest supporters. He explained that he always tried his best to talk any potential would-be entrepreneurs out of it because IF he could talk them out of it, they did not have the grit to go the distance. But, if they could not be talked out of it, then he would help them succeed since they would need all the support they could get! Oh, he was so right! As a result of that experience, I have adopted his philosophy of sharing the bad and ugly bits with those who ask my advice in hopes of sparing them if they have only heard the success stories and imagined the glory of startup life.

For example, are you prepared for:

• Thinking about your business ALL THE TIME?
• Disappointing setbacks?
• Sleepless nights?
• Loads of rejections?
• Interrupted vacations?
• Endless delays from others who don’t share your sense of urgency?
• Missed kids’ sporting events, performances, and special events?
• And the list goes on and on…

Please do not kid yourself. As a founder, you are ultimately responsible for creatively solving whatever problem emerges, often under tremendous time pressure and with minimal resources. That will require sacrifices. If you tell yourself that you will maintain good boundaries, you will find those boundaries tested and likely find yourself having to choose between taking a potentially fatal hit to the business or shifting that boundary.

At the same time, I do not want to be excessively bleak. I keep doing this – and the reason is that there are also those moments of encouragement when one of your target customers gets excited about what you are building, an investor decides to back your project, and you can see that the impact of what you and your team has built is happening. Sometimes, you can see that your high-quality work is saving lives, helping people, or making a tangible difference in the world – and that direct impact resulting from your work can be so clear and feel so worthwhile that it helps encourage you to keep going.

But, if the problem you are solving is worth it to you and others, you will find yourself willing to leap out of bed and into the fray every morning. And, hopefully, you will be right and make a meaningful positive impact on the world – and possibly some wealth for your investors and yourself.