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Ask HN: How do you handle battle between self-doubt and hope/persistence?
Something that must be familiar to most who start a startup is the roller coaster between the self-doubt and hope they experience. In PG's "What startups are really like", he says
"In a startup, things seem great one moment and hopeless the next. And by next, I mean a couple hours later",
Of course, persistence is what is needed to sustain you through the lows.
On the other hand, I'm thinking that if things look bleak (the startup isn't doing great, you're getting no investments, no traction, etc) maybe that's a good sign to hang up your boots and stop wasting any more of your time on your current project and look for something that has a better chance of succeeding.
So, my question is, when things look bleak, how do you decide between "Things will work out in the end. I will persevere" and "This will not work out. I must listen to the clues and exit" ?
Of course, there is no single answer, but how do you guys personally handle this situation?
- anigbrowl 17y agoSet goals and triggers (warnings) on different timeframes and levels. Not too many, so you are able to keep track of them mentally and don't spend much time administering your list. Get advice from friends and/or your romantic partner (if you're in a serious relationship) about what should be on that list. Have good friends who will encourage and applaud your progress, and some close ones you can share problems with and who'll tell you if you're driving into the ditch. I have a shrink I go to occasionally and it's good to have someone you can speak to with total unabashed honesty, and who will ask questions or notice things about your thinking patterns that may not even occur to others. A good attorney can fulfill a similar function for some people. Have a safety valve and an anchor, too. Could be a place you go or an activity that lets you reboot mentally when you're having a particularly difficult time, or some obligation or giving-back to acknowledge your good fortune when you find yourself feeling cocky. Church or a community activity fill these roles for some people. Finally, have an escape hatch. Have some place you can take off to for alone time and an excuse for why you will not be available to anyone, because when you go there you disable your phone etc. There are times you need to stop talking, stop planning, stop thinking and just be. To quote an old Zen proverb, if your cup is too full of your thoughts and ideas, there is no room left to pour in new ones. So empty your cup from time to time.
- kirse 17y agoI noticed you didn't get much response on here, but my best advice is to not root yourself in the outcome of the startup so much. It's tough to do (especially since we entrepreneurs are such dreamers and visionaries), but try to focus on enjoying the day-to-day journey of building, discovery, and learning more than the end goals and emotional dreams you have for the startup. If your primary source of motivation for doing a startup is this grand vision of "success" that is propped up in your head (multi-million-dollar exits, Lamborghinis, boats, houses, etc), your day-to-day perception of your startup's "success" will be like a small boat in a large storm... tossed around by every wave of good or bad news. For me, I simply enjoy the challenge of building something, working hard, and "seeing where it goes". So keep your expectations reasonable. I worked hard on a startup for ~2 years, starting in college and for about a year while I held down a 40hr/week job. It was pretty clear that after multiple iterations and a splintered team that it wasn't going to succeed. I know near the end I took a good week off to mentally disengage and try to look at it from an objective perspective as possible. I talked it over with my co-founders and we ultimately decided it was time to pull the plug. Oddly enough, my first real business venture was a success, and my second one was a failure. To me, giving up was much harder than succeeding, because I'm not one to give up easily. I learned a lot from that failure though and am proud to admit to the people who ask that it was a failure, because it's an excellent story.