What keeps you going?

9 points by housewife 14 years ago | 10 comments

For all of you out there who are working on start ups, or have, be they successful or not, how do you get over those humps where you just want to throw in the towel or move on to another project? I am not in this particular slump at the moment, in fact quite the opposite, I am more energized and optimistic than ever, but I have been a few times, and worked through it. What are your personal strategies that help you move through a demoralizing/demotivating period in your pursuit?

This is an open ended, "what makes you tick" question, just to get some interesting pov, not an invitation for negative jackassery.

pasbesoin 14 years ago |

I'm going to come at this from another perspective. Some years ago, a friend lost a significant portion of their health to a couple of unfortunate injuries. Doctors have not been able to fix these problems and have actually on more than one occasion made them worse.

As this person describes, before this occurred, life had it's ups and downs. But even with the serious downs, it was typically about a three day cycle before they started to "bounce back". Even when the underlying issue was not resolved, the current day and current experiences started to once again predominate, and things started to come "into perspective".

Currently, they experience some level of discomfort almost constantly, and the infrequent "good periods" are quite unpredictable. The result is that they often simple can't concentrate on things in a sustained fashion, and so they also can't enter the state of "flow" that used to make them so productive.

My point: GUARD YOUR HEALTH. And pay attention to your health. If you are struggling, stop and ask yourself: How am I doing, physically?

I've become convinced that a significant portion of the U.S.'s "mental health" issues actually have their origin in physical health, or lack thereof.

One of my issues with health care in the U.S. is that, when the doctor makes a mistake, you "pay twice" to -- hopefully -- have it fixed. If you don't want to do that, and/or they don't fix things, you face a very expensive and uncertain process. In this person's case, all they really wanted was to "feel better". One would think that addressing this, medically, would be the simplest solution, But... the U.S. health care system has a way of entirely reversing priorities.

Insurance helps ameliorate this somewhat (a cap on your own, immediate out-of-pocket expenses). If you don't have insurance (perhaps, ever more so these days, through no fault of your own), or they deny your claim, you're fully screwed.

housewife 14 years ago | |

This is a really great point. I have long believed that physical and mental health are so connected to one another. I actually have had this proven to me very recently in two instances. My mother in law has cancer, and she recently stopped responding to chemo, so she stopped the treatment. Now basically all she can do is fight with sheer will (which she has a LOT of luckily) and she's doing this vegan diet, which has been known to cure some people. The funny thing though, is that she was saying the other day she feels so much more able to fight it now that she's off chemo and not feeling sick all the time. She's feeling like a million bucks, I hope it stays that way... The other instance is myself; I am currently recovering from my second go with postpartum depression. I am ok now, I actually feel like dynamite too :) but I did have to go on meds for it. It's unreal how it affects you physically. I was sleeping like 16 hours a day for a few weeks, and still exhausted (and I was blessed with a baby that slept through the night at 5 weeks, so it wasn't due to actual sleep deprivation). And now I'm really feeling healthy. Anyone will tell you too, exercise and sleep and diet are some of the keys to keeping depression at bay.

I am fortunate that I live in Alberta, and don't have to go through the woes of the US health care system. I never take our free healthcare for granted. I am sorry for what your friend is going through...

Thanks for the post pasbesoin!

cristianpascu 14 years ago |

I've in a startup (http://flairbuilder.com), all by myself, for more than 3 years now. And it's been a ride. Lots of ups and downs.

Most of the time, simply taking a break helps a lot. I go to the movies, meet friends. Spend time with my family, although not as much as I should or want to.

Other than that, I also have other passions: I play guitar/keyboards, I read stuff (although not as much as I should or want to). I started a master in Philosophy, which is both challenging and exciting. I wish I'd become a film-maker someday, but the school is pretty expensive. Don't know about it.

However, I got tired of being on my own as it's hard work and energy consuming. I'm working on a new product now (http://bicodr.com), which excites me. And I also use the excitement back into the current product, which still brings a good income.

housewife 14 years ago | |

Yes, I think this does really help. I didn't really notice, but I do take time for these things, I have to, I am married and have 2 daughters, so it is not really an option not to...but I didn't reflect on how that balances the hectic start up part of life, even though being a mom in itself is hectic! Thanks for the input!

fezzl 14 years ago |

Paying customers. Alternatively, active users. Any form of positive market reaction to what I'm building keeps me going.

housewife 14 years ago | |

Absolutely agree, thanks fezzl.

httpitis 14 years ago |

Found your post during a search for another post about favorite programming languages. I read another post suggesting going to the local library to work a couple of hours. I've contemplated this but never got around to it yet. I wish you the best of luck on finding tools and habits to keep things moving.

housewife 14 years ago | |

we have thought about doing this before, and not done it yet either, lol. thanks!

jcr 14 years ago |

Though we only live about 30 minutes apart, I've never met PG, and hence, I don't really know him. There are many people on this site that do know him, and have worked with him, so they would definitely be in a better position to elaborate on what PG calls "the trough of sorrow" faced by nearly all startups. The following link mentions it, and a bit of searching will yield a lot more results:

http://www.inc.com/ss/can-paul-graham-mass-produce-start

I don't know if PG originated the phrase or not, but somewhere in his copious writing and speaking, he once said something along the lines of, "One of the toughest thing for YC is keeping up the spirits of a batch of founders going through the trough of sorrow." --Though I've quoted it, this is not a direct quote, and worse, off the top of my head I can't remember the exact reference I should cite. In other words, I may be misquoting him, and if so, hopefully he'll correct me.

As for me personally, the thing that keeps me going is remembering how lucky I am.

Today is a great and wonderful day, but in more precise terms, I feel good enough to be out in my little garage/office and I good enough to type out this comment. To put it bluntly, my health sucks, and as such, my usefulness is curtailed about half the time, sometimes more. Every day when I can read and learn something is a good day, even if I hurt too much to type out any notes, ideas or code.

I admire and even envy the people starting new companies. I may not be able to use or afford their services, but I still admire their efforts; they are doing something I am physically unable to do. Each of them is taking on the amazingly fun challenge of starting a business, and I may never again have the luxury, the drive, or the physical ability needed to once again enjoy the challenge of building a startup.

None the less, I count my blessings. I have a roof over my head, food on my table, and relative peace in my area of the world here in the silicon valley, so I have much to be thankful for in life, but more importantly, I KNOW I am very lucky. I appreciate the little things I can still do even if they seem pointlessly trivial by comparison.

If you've never been thankful for the ability to simply cut the food on your plate, let alone having food on your plate, then you are probably caught in the mental spiral of worrying about unimportant things.

Today was "Demo Day" for the Winter 2012 batch of YCcombinator startups, and you can be certain that every founder in the batch had many worries and concerns about presenting their companies to potential investors for the first time. The upcoming deadline for YC applications at the end of the month has all of the potential candidates of the next YC batch worried and concerned. If you are not involved in YC and have your own startup, you also have plenty of worries and concerns.

The thing to remember is, as a founder you are very lucky to have these problems to worry about. If you can learn to take a step back and remember how lucky you are, then you'll learn to enjoy and appreciate each and every little challenge you face.

I hope this helps.