Courage in the face of doubters

A startup life can be very lonely and isolating. When you think about how many business ventures fail and the fact that to be successful you have to beat a new path to customers; It should be no surprise that you will not have many cheerleaders during your hardest moments.

We all are conditioned to the mythology of the “instant success” story. The kid with the idea on a Monday and the IPO in a couple short months. But deep down we all know that is never the case.

“Instant success takes time” is one of my favorite truisms. New startups, amazing polished products, or ideas that just rocket to success out of nowhere and have often been preceded by a long period of preparation, rehearsal, and trial-and-error experimentation.

Matt Hendrick has a poignant post titled On Perseverance that speaks to the attitude needed to make it in a new venture.

“It won’t be easy. Taking this path requires sacrifice. Humble yourself. We all need money to survive in this world. Do you think you’re “above” being a waiter, or working a pizza delivery job on the side to keep the lights on? Just how badly do you want to succeed? There’s a famous saying that my friends and I latched onto some years ago: “Successful people do what unsuccessful people won’t do, even when they don’t want to do it.” You might not want to get up at 5:30 in the morning to work a second job, but your situation may require it. Are you up to the challenge?”

Winning and the courage to see your dreams through is no mystery. Successful people have invested in three underpinnings of their confidence.

First is responsibility.

They’ve already confronted facts truthfully and taken accountability for his or her personal decisions.

Next is collaboration.

They’ve created allies and associates, not adversaries in all their relationships.

Finally there is initiative thinking.

They try to make continuous small-scale improvements instead of counting only on the periodic smash hit success.