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As a fellow founder, I experience the ups-and-downs of the start-up roller coaster everyday. One of my favorite quotes from Founders at Work comes from Joe Kraus, one of the creators of Excite: “The hardest part in a startup is that you wake up one morning and you feel great about the day, and you think, “We’re kicking ass.” And then you wake up the next morning and you think “We’re dead.” And literally nothing’s changed. You haven’t made some big deal, you haven’t sold something new. Maybe you wrote a few lines of code over the course of that last day. Maybe you had some conversations with people, but nothing’s really moved. It’s completely irrational, but it’s exactly what you go through.” It's easy to let yourself get down in the dumps by what other people say. One bad though of defeatism can ruin you entire day. It's also easy to combat it in a few small ways: - Commit code everyday - If you do this, you'll see your small gains adding up, have a record of what you've learned, and everyday feel like you've made at least some progress. Even if it's a small change (changing a color on a button you've been looking at for weeks), nothing makes you feel better than commit and deploying code. - Find a great cofounder - If you're serious about starting a new start-up (or just learning more in general), find someone to go into battle with you. You'll feel off each other's energy in a ying-yang sort of way. When you're bummed, their natural tendency will be to protect you and pump you up. When s/he is bummed, you'll do the same. Find a rock - Not many people talk about rock's as a necessary part of starting a company. To me, a rock is someone who you trust greatly, is a good listener, and is removed from the business. It can be boy/girlfriend, husband/wife, friend, mentor, practically anyone. The key to a good rock is they are objective, a good listener, and won't even judge you. Just start - There's nothing like finding out whether you should go on the journey than to take a few steps and see how you feel. If jumping back on the start-up roller coaster is what you want, then enjoy the ride. |