Chapter 9: Mindset & The Lifestyle
Believe. Then Build.
entrepreneur mindset, lifestyle, belief, grit, resilience, entrepreneurial life
The Mindset Required
Okay, so let’s talk for a minute about the entrepreneur lifestyle. This part of the presentation is brought to you by — brought to you by my wife, who I met here at Tech, who said, “You know, when you talk about entrepreneurship, you’re gonna talk about lifestyle.” I said, “Whatever do you mean?” She said, “Are you going to talk about how hard it is on families and relationships?” I said — I’m being somewhat facetious — it can be all-consuming. And I think that’s something you have to think about if you’re going to start a business, especially as a solo entrepreneur and a small-company entrepreneur. They can be — and they are — all-consuming, if you want them to work.
Believe
It can be difficult on relationships. Be cognizant of that and be aware of it. I would do it differently if I had it to do over again. I’m not sure I’d have been less successful, but I’d have been more cognizant of the fact that this was hard on the family. You have to believe in what you’re building — and that belief has to be real enough to sustain you through all of it.
What the Lifestyle Actually Looks Like
I was always on the go. I was always traveling. I was always on the phone, always on email. I didn’t know anything about “what’s a weekend” — I had no idea. Friday is just two days to Monday, right? That’s kind of the way you think for a while. What’s a vacation? I don’t know. It’s like every other day you might be by the lake with your laptop instead of in the office.
I’m telling you this because it can be real, and I would be careful of it. It happens to a lot of us — we end up spending our entire lives focused on the business, and there’s more to life than this. It was fun; I enjoyed a lot of it. But I would have done it differently. So think about that.
Now, corporate life could be as demanding. We heard last night from one of the panel members about how demanding his corporate life was, and I had a corporate life too that was quite the same way. But be cognizant of it — make time for other things, because there’s more to life than just work. There really is.
Startups tend to take more time than, I would say, corporate life, because in corporate life the business is going to keep running with you or without you. Your startup may or may not keep running with you or without you. And that’s the thing you have to be aware of, if you’re going to go into this.