Itch

I have met many talented people with no itch. We are living in a divided world. The disparity between the rich and poor is increasing with time. Many who want to switch lanes and come out of poverty are desperate, they have hunger in their belly and are itching for opportunity.

At the same time, many born with a silver spoon aka well-to-doo families with generational wealth are becoming lazy. The hunger and itch is missing. They will soon realize in no time how wealth will disappear and the coming generation will have to bear the burden of it. People have generational wealth because someone in their generation had an itch in the past.

Fear

Fear adds vulnerability to our existence. The smartest in the world were initially scared to venture out. Many people die and go to the grave without fulfilling or taking a bet they were bullish on for decades.

Fear comes from upbringing and availability as well. If from the start, you are told what you cannot do, and not appreciated for your small wins, no matter what: you will avoid venturing out.

The only reality of life is that we are dying every second. But what is the point of living life with fear? You must believe in yourself more, go against the odds to win over your fear, and die peacefully because you tried.

Cons

Every con artist comes with an expiry date. In the initial days, people love them for their magnificent talking skills and fresh perspective on every subject. This adds to their confidence, so they continue doing their puppetry until people start getting bored.

The media loves these con artists because of their TRP and bytes. We have witnessed many dozen such mortals in our startup ecosystem in the last few years.

Look around you to notice many such cons showcasing their half-baked knowledge with no substance.

importance

As a founder building a company, one of the most important things I have learned is “what I don’t want.” We spent thousands of hours meeting individuals who were never our customers. It was more for persona mapping.

There are times when you will feel like giving up. There are days when you would feel others have been more kinder. The sooner you realize you are on this journey for yourself, these things will not matter.

There are no written templates. There are no written charters to follow if you are building a startup. It is about you, your hard work, approach, and conviction.

The sooner you will realize this, you will develop a bullshit meter. It will make you more humble and leave ample time to focus on the most important things.

Your time as a founder is limited. You decide which award function to attend, which customer demos to take, or which potential customer to talk to on the phone. You can do what you want if it solves your time management. Many will call you arrogant, an asshole, it should not matter.

Your responsibility is to grow your organization, make your stakeholders rich and, the team feel privileged and powerful with your company.

peace

Our inner peace requires more solitude, less chattiness or externalities. We can have all the wealth of the world, and still, we will be broken from the inside. We can be the best actor or scientist winning numerous awards, but still feel lost. All of this is because we are not satisfied or at peace with ourselves.

This world we are living in is for us alone, our thoughts and actions leave a mark on us more than others. All these quests of getting rich, becoming famous, or winning for others will leave us more miserable.

Do we even know what we are running for? Do we even know what we are running away from? Do we know where will this run stop? Do we know if it ever stops?

The peace comes from acceptance and acknowledging adversities and knowing that we are tiny little creatures in this bigger scheme of things aka the universe. In the end, we all die and most importantly no one gives a shit. We will be forgotten even after everything we are desiring to accomplish in this single life.

We have to live now, making the world around us livable. We have to be at peace within ourselves.

Vulnerability

When we were kids, we were onto ourselves. We can act, behave, and be as we are. It was accepted to cry, be sad, or speak about vulnerability. It was well received, and people appreciated it.

As we age, we have to be perfect. We must do our best among others in the families, friends, and even siblings to as medal of superiority. It is like we are living a life for others. We are not the same person. We are not supposed to cry, speak about our fears, or ask for advice from our parents as they expect the best out of us.

It is like we are in some battle and, we cannot be ourselves. Every move of ours is tracked by someone.

The alter ego comes hunting with a big reminder: Don’t show your Vulnerability.

change

Many of us dislike change. We feel it isn’t easy to adapt to a new reality. Some continue to live in pain till death over losing, while many others continue drinking and smoking knowing how it’s killing them.

Why do we dislike change? Is it because we are lazy, is it because we are stubborn, or is it because we like being miserable?

Our life should be like water, changing course with time. We cannot blame others or live with past glory or waste time on what we could have done that we did not.

Vision

As a founder, it becomes necessary to show the long-term vision of the enterprise to the members. Like an evangelical priest, a founder must discuss a long-term roadmap. A young team should know what they are getting into. In some scenarios, it will work for all in others, not for a few.

The long-term vision should be the progress of everyone and every stakeholder. Building a startup is a long, painful journey. What makes it easy is a team equally motivated and geared up for any challenges.

In the founder, the team looks for aspirations and future journeys.

Army

A startup team is like building an army. It has defined must-have virtues and must-not-have vices as the first level of filtration, something we, as founders, tend to forget because of building fast and fundraising. In the short run, this gets us funding or a product, but as the company grows, it bites us on multiple fronts.

An army or a team requires a culture to imbibe. There is a saying: monkey see, monkey do. We humans are similar. In the early days, from the very top if the culture is not well aligned, the team will suffer and overall productivity will be affected.

We were sold 10X engineers, their fast development skills and founders were okay paying them loads of money and taking their shit. With time many of those companies realize the toxic work culture the organization has become. It has become the individual’s ego, contribution VS working together as a team and shipping.