[loladesoto]

The wartime CEO lets the war define the culture. —Ben Horowitz

part of the war waged when running a startup is rejection: repeated, horrifying, relentless. there is no peace and the arrows fly. you can't always control your immediate response but you can train yourself to be braced for it, inured to it when it comes. eventually, with a lot of hard mental conditioning, you can find and appreciate the benefits of being rejected (fortitude, resilience, grim determination).

getting into YC is one of many paths to winning that war when you're ready. just turns out to be the most effective i can think of.