When I did my first startup, just updating my LinkedIn profile to “Founder, XYZ” got me tons of congratulatory messages. But soon, I realized that all that celebration was premature.
Because the real grind comes next: building the product.
But once the product prototype is ready, you realize that even that wasn’t the real deal.
The real deal is to get paying customers. Once you have paying customers, you need profitability. Then comes growth. Then comes something else.
And at each stage, it is not even like you get there in one go — you fail dozens of times before getting it somewhat right.
The grind never ends. One can easily despair. And God knows, how many times I have despaired.
But that’s what you sign up for as an entrepreneur. Yes, 1 in 1,000 may get lucky but even for them, it is not easy — just see how badly many unicorns are struggling today.
LinkedIn will convince you that startups are glorious. And everybody is having a gala time. But you have no idea how much pain is hidden behind the glory.
Whenever the pain and grind of your life overwhelm you, remind yourself — everybody is struggling. You are not alone.
It is just that people have become really good at hiding their pain.
– Rajan