Earlier this week, a client CEO was telling me that he has to remind himself that this, right now, is "the good old days."
In his case, it's because he's busy beating himself up that he hasn't found product/market fit fast enough and he had to pivot and he's still years from getting to $10M in ARR. According to this CEO, that's when he'll finally be able to look at himself in the mirror and feel like he's doing something meaningful.
Thankfully, he's super self aware and he realizes that, someday, should he be lucky enough to be running that $10M company, he'll be stuck in meetings all the time and he'll be pining for those times when it was just himself, a product guy, a couple of developers and nothing but green fields.
Yes, there's a lot of stress in the early days of a startup, but it's also some of the truly best times in the startup lifecycle, IF you're willing to give yourself the space to enjoy it.
If you mess up with an early design partner, no one cares! If you mess up when you're doing a million in ARR, you might done messed up. Now, a firehose of new information feels like a blessing. Someday, it's just one more thing to manage. Right now, you can fit the entire team around a table and everyone knows everyone else's names. Right now, everyone's here because they believe.
I'm a huge fan of using aphorisms in my coaching because it creates simple ideas that CEOs can repeat to themselves when they're mindful. I'm planning on adding this one to my repertoire.
No matter how hard it is now, it only gets harder and more stressful as your business succeeds. These are, indeed, the good old days.
#startups #founders #mentalhealth #smelltheroses