Lately, I’ve been drawing parallels between running a startup and running a race. The work you have to put in, the consistency required, the difficulty regardless of your development, the fact that they’re not for most people.
Why would you sign up for this?
I’ve felt this question clearly on two occasions: when I decided to found a startup and when I decided to run a marathon.
Elon Musk has famously said that starting a company is like eating glass and staring into the abyss. And anyone who has run a marathon knows the extreme and constant mental and physical agony as you approach your final third of the race.
For me, the reason I chose to pursue each of these endeavors is the same: I needed to.
I needed to do so in order to feel fulfilled, to feel alive. I was pursuing a genuine curiosity and perhaps even a feeling. There were also external motivations like the desire for a successful outcome. But these motivations were nice to haves, while the endeavors were need to dos.
Neither of these pursuits was easy. Quite the opposite. And yet, I decided to pursue each once more after the first time.
Why would you sign up for this again?
Again, I needed to. Ultimately, we’re all selfish and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Because when we’re selfish, we can perform.
When I think about running, whether a startup or a marathon, I think about what will make me feel like myself. Because at the end of the day, I don’t mean to be a founder or a marathoner, but rather to be myself.
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