... I wake up every two hours and cry" (Ben Horowitz). Some weeks ago I was moderating the Startups For Tomorrow Festival and was honoured to interview so many amazing founders and CEOs of great companies I admire. But I was also close to the people sitting in the audience. Who listened with big eyes to all the stories of success and failure told on stage. Who are about to launch their own thing or maybe just started recently.
After having quite often those sleepless nights as mentioned in the quote above, I woke up today in the morning and started reflecting. What is it about founding your own company? From where does this glow come, that people get in their eyes once they start talking about their journey (that obviously had a lot of sleepless nights included). Why do people choose this path, instead of sleeping well with a nice paycheck at the end of the month?
Is it really the drive to make the world a bit better or is it just the drive to get the ego a bit bigger? Does it really pay off if you add all the hours of working, all the hours of not sleeping and all the grey hair of not being able to relax for even one entire weekend, while either the company is skyrocketing or sh*** hitting the fan.
For myself, I still sometimes struggle to answer the question, and it depends on my daily mood. Even if it is easy for me to see the impact I am having in this world with my nookees. How many lives it already changed and how many more will follow. How much joy it (mostly) brings me again and again, even if I did not sleep well the night before. Every single feedback email from customers, every single period pad for the girls and women in the global south. A million times worth it. A gazillion times worth it. Sure it comes with a price, as everything else in the world also does.
