5 Lessons Young Entrepreneurs Mostly Learn the Hard Way
With this article I intend to explain some personal lessons I learned the hard way, while embracing the hustle culture that led to me and my teammates burning out. I’ve also included some practical recommendations to be the health-savvy entrepreneur.
The hustle culture is more present in the entrepreneurship world than in any other environment. This culture teaches us that it’s ok to work 100 hour weeks, have a “full-life“ dedication to your startup, sleep five hours if necessary and win at all costs against your competition.
What follows are some lessons I’ve learned the hard way, that will help you realize that in the startup world there are some important factors to consider that have much more impact than “working hard”.
Lesson 1 — Competition won’t kill you. But burnout can
When I started my first company back in 2005, I literally used to work 80 hours a week because I felt that our competitors could kill us. This led to me and others burning out and of course, losing valuable talent.
I wish I had read this great article about finding ideas by Paul Graham, in which he explains that the chances of your startup being killed by competitors are practically zero:
Because a good idea should seem obvious, when you have one you’ll tend to feel that you’re late. Don’t let that deter you. Worrying that you’re late is one of the signs of a good idea. Ten minutes of searching the web will usually settle the question. Even if you find someone else working on the same thing, you’re probably not too late. It’s exceptionally rare for startups to be killed by competitors — so rare that you can almost discount the possibility.
The reason why I call this the burnout, is because I know how it feels and the damage it can do. According to UC Berkeley, self-reported mental health concerns were present across 72% of the entrepreneurs sampled, a proportion that was significantly higher than that of the comparison group.
Entrepreneurs were significantly more likely to report a lifetime history of depression (30%), ADHD (29%), substance use conditions (12%), and bipolar diagnosis (11%).
This topic in my opinion, is taboo. It’s hard to admit that we are under extreme pressure and it’s difficult to find people to talk about it, who have been through these experiences as a founder. The antidote in my experience, is to build your “good habit system” (more on this at the bottom of the article).
Lesson 2— The right “What” and the right “Who” are more important than working until exhaustion
It‘s of no value working super hard if you are following the wrong trend, in the wrong market or solving a problem few people have.
Instead, as Naval Ravikant mentions it’s critical to partner with people that share your core values, long term vision and who complement your skillset.
Because of this our mental health, critical thinking and judgement are critical to founders. Reading the signs of the environment, anticipating market changes, adapting to new trends or responding to black swan events, are things we’ll have to do many times as the company grows.
Acquiring this skills will take years of experience, but building good habits is something that we an all start doing right now (I’ve included a list of resources at the bottom of the article)
These are all tasks that involve creativity and a sharp mind. And this attributes demand we be at the top of our game.
Lesson 3— It’s not a spring but a marathon (with hurdles)
Amidst seasoned athletes, there are many who start a marathon, but only a few are able to run the complete distance. Likewise, there are many founders who are taking the startup plunge now, yet only a few show the persistence to reach the finish line. Both running a marathon and launching a startup test your hard work, determination and perseverance in the pursuit to reach the ultimate objective.
In a sprint race the athlete exhausts all his stamina right from the word go, just to be the fastest to cover the short distance. Whereas, a marathoner starts slowly as he has a long way to go. In the context of a startup, the same holds true. If you run too fast you will burn out, and if you run out of your investment, you are out of the whole startup race.
Marathoners design their race strategy in a stage-wise manner. Variables like course layout, temperature and terrain are taken into consideration by the runner to devise a tactic to optimize his stamina. If the course runs uphill, they spend more energy; while on a downhill part of the course they can conserve their stamina.
Likewise, the entrepreneurs should have an attitude of endeavouring for the next, after accomplishing one achievement. This is where many startups make a mistake that when they attain the product success, they don’t know what to do next. Rather, they should always prepare themselves for the next challenge and take the business to an even higher success level.
Lesson 4 — If it’s a marathon… patience is key
A good friend of mine is the founder of a unicorn, a B2B SaaS company for remote distributed teams. They spent seven long years building their product and growing slowly their customer base. They kept going, trying new distribution strategies, until Covid 19 hit the world. They saw an unprecedented growth because their tool was just perfect for remote teams. Of course there is a luck component here, but they had the resilience and patience to keep going without burning out.
Patience can bring us tremendous rewards but requires us to work on keeping our anxiety in check. Albert Einstein once said “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it; he who doesn’t, pays it”. I also like this quote about @alexhormozi
Lesson 5 — The chances that an entrepreneur will face a Black Swan event are high. Be prepared !
“It took us 12 years to build Airbnb, and we lost almost everything in four to six weeks,” Brian Chesky, the CEO of Airbnb, said in an interview on CNBC, indicating that the company was preparing to go public in 2020, and now that is up in the air. He is just one of the countless entrepreneurs who now face an uncertain future due to the global pandemic that is wreaking disruption in all facets of life.
As you can see in the chart below, in the last 35 years we’ve seen 11 black swan events that have somehow affected the Nasdaq and consequently, the rest of the economy of the world:
That’s one every 3.18 years, so the chances of an entrepreneur having to face one of these events is not so low. I have personally faced three (2007 Great Recession, Covid 2019 and 2022 Russia vs Ukraine) and I argue that under these ugly circumstances it pays off to have a good habit system in place. In the next section of this article you will find some additional resources I’ve found very valuable and I hope you can use them too.
Finally, here are some practical tools that helped me and others
- The company is a machine. Use EOS to make it run smoothly
- How to build your “Healthy Habit System”
- Keeping anxiety in check
- Gratitude journaling helps a lot to put things in perspective
- Fasting and nutrition
- Stoicism can be a is a very useful tool for entrepreneurs
- Finally, here is what Y Combinator has to say about lifestyle habits of successful founders:
The purpose of these articles is to cover stories, insights, and ideas related to entrepreneurship, product design, wellness and building good habits. Curious to hear more? Follow/connect with me here on LinkedIn and Twitter. If you enjoy these articles, please leave some claps and consider sharing them among your network- it would be massively appreciated.
