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Though we only live about 30 minutes apart, I've never met PG, and
hence, I don't really know him. There are many people on this site that
do know him, and have worked with him, so they would definitely be in a
better position to elaborate on what PG calls "the trough of sorrow"
faced by nearly all startups. The following link mentions it, and a bit
of searching will yield a lot more results: http://www.inc.com/ss/can-paul-graham-mass-produce-start I don't know if PG originated the phrase or not, but somewhere in his
copious writing and speaking, he once said something along the lines of,
"One of the toughest thing for YC is keeping up the spirits of a batch
of founders going through the trough of sorrow." --Though I've quoted
it, this is not a direct quote, and worse, off the top of my head I
can't remember the exact reference I should cite. In other words, I may
be misquoting him, and if so, hopefully he'll correct me. As for me personally, the thing that keeps me going is remembering how
lucky I am. Today is a great and wonderful day, but in more precise terms, I feel
good enough to be out in my little garage/office and I good enough to
type out this comment. To put it bluntly, my health sucks, and as such,
my usefulness is curtailed about half the time, sometimes more. Every
day when I can read and learn something is a good day, even if I hurt
too much to type out any notes, ideas or code. I admire and even envy the people starting new companies. I may not be
able to use or afford their services, but I still admire their efforts;
they are doing something I am physically unable to do. Each of them is
taking on the amazingly fun challenge of starting a business, and I may
never again have the luxury, the drive, or the physical ability needed
to once again enjoy the challenge of building a startup. None the less, I count my blessings. I have a roof over my head, food on
my table, and relative peace in my area of the world here in the silicon
valley, so I have much to be thankful for in life, but more importantly,
I KNOW I am very lucky. I appreciate the little things I can still do
even if they seem pointlessly trivial by comparison. If you've never been thankful for the ability to simply cut the food on
your plate, let alone having food on your plate, then you are probably
caught in the mental spiral of worrying about unimportant things. Today was "Demo Day" for the Winter 2012 batch of YCcombinator startups,
and you can be certain that every founder in the batch had many worries
and concerns about presenting their companies to potential investors for
the first time. The upcoming deadline for YC applications at the end of
the month has all of the potential candidates of the next YC batch
worried and concerned. If you are not involved in YC and have your own
startup, you also have plenty of worries and concerns. The thing to remember is, as a founder you are very lucky to have these
problems to worry about. If you can learn to take a step back and
remember how lucky you are, then you'll learn to enjoy and appreciate
each and every little challenge you face. I hope this helps. |