10 Hard truths I have learned from being a startup founder.

#1 You will learn to pep talk yourself to sleep, and sometimes, it won’t work.

If there is one thing that founders have in common, it is how driven we all are. This makes you restless, which is good and bad. You need resistance and discipline to succeed. The down side; your startup will be in your mind 24/7 and not everyone around you or near you will have the patience to listen to your worries, ideas and coffee rushes all day long. So you learn to be there for yourself in a way that you have never been there for you before.

#2 Nobody, literally nobody will understand what you are going through unless…they are also a founder or have been one.

I sincerely think that some of the closest people in my life still don’t understand the scope of all the work that takes into building a startup from scratch, and the worst part is that we can’t blame them.

#3 You will feel like an alien often.

The problems you are having aren’t common, the questions you have won’t be answered by calling your bestie. You will have to go an extra mile to find the right resources. It will often alienate you from regular conversations that aren’t relatable to you anymore. (i.e. You won’t have long weekends, no 4th of July off for you!)

#4 People think you must have plenty of free time, since you are your “own boss”

Are you laughing with me on this one? I was on a webinar recently with lots of new entrepreneurs and a woman said “I began my own business so I could have more time for myself” and while this might be true to some lucky ones and yes you can be flexible about your schedule. The chances are; you will be a slave to your business for a long time if you want it to succeed.

#5 There is no time for you to get sick or have family emergencies.

Last month, I had both. Oh boy, what a setback. If there is anything that will give you perspective, it is to get physically and emotionally unavailable at the worst possible times. I learnt this the hard way, I was too stubborn to postpone a really important interview and I thought if I rested the whole day and only took that one call, I would be fine. It wasn’t. I had a fever and my mind wasn’t as sharp, my energy wasn’t where I wished it was and I noticed it in my performance and the lack of interaction from the audience. Never again. Better to postpone than to ruin a chance.

Oh and did I mention that setting an “OoO” will make you cringe?

#6 If you are a perfectionist, good luck and goodbye to your mental health.

One of the hardest things you need to accept when you are building a startup is that from all the thousands of things you need to be doing, there simply won’t be enough time. You won’t be able to make them all, and at least not perfect. You will have to learn to let go of things that don’t need to be completely perfect, as long as they are done.

#7 You will make mistakes without a doubt, but when you are a founder you will wish to make them fast, so you can learn.

It’s no secret that the hard lessons are learnt faster. You will need to pivot and try different things often, some won’t work and it’s best that you find the things that don’t work sooner than later.

#8 There are so many pyramid schemes out there!

Oh man, I really didn’t know how bad it is out there until I became a founder. You will have to turn into a spy and do research constantly. As a founder you will receive lots of emails with people supposedly trying to “Support you” be wary and keep your eyes open. Especially when it seems too good to be true. You will get asked to pay to get listed as “X or Y” people will try to sell you “really fishy book deals” some “companies” will try to get you to pay them for “competitions” to “pitch at events” don’t do it.

#9 Looking at competitors is good, but keep it minimal.

Having competitors is a great thing believe it or not. It means there is a market, it means that there are people paying for solutions in that industry. However, this can be mentally exhausting too. Keep it short and sweet, learn about them, their geography and keep an eye on their updates but that’s it.

#10 You will feel guilty about taking time off.

I don’t know what else to say about that, but I no longer enjoy watching TV, a lot of things suddenly feel like a waste of time and that’s okay. Pay attention to the things that will enrich you, make you feel joy (Mary Kondo mode on) and make time to have fun and play. It really helps to spark good ideas!

*Lastly, being a startup founder might be one of the hardest professional challenges you’ll ever endure, but it will also be one of the greatest learning experiences in your life. Your passion will take you places you never imagined, you will open doors to opportunities that would be so hard to open if you weren’t one. The people you will meet, will leave you in awe.No regrets, no complaints, not every day is easy, it is a roller coaster but the good days really are great!