7 TIPS ON HOW TO SURVIVE BEING A FOUNDER OF YOUR OWN BUSINESS

Ok, so now you call yourself a founder and a CEO. Congratulations, you are on your way to an extremely difficult and stressful life!
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Many people think it’s a nice fancy title, it gives you financial freedom, independence and ability to do whatever you want in life. Younger people often think it’s just cool and smart to be a founder of your own business. Well, whereas some of it may very well be true, the way to a real freedom and independence is much more difficult than it can look from a position of a fully employed “dependent” person. 

What do you have when you are employed by someone else? First of all, you have a more or less predictable schedule (even in investment banking you know you will be working 75+ hours a week – pretty predictable, huh?), no financial responsibility for paying salaries to your company’s employees, you can go to a gym or to a dinner with your loved ones after work, meet friends on the weekends or take short relaxing trips to some nice places – all of it knowing that you are going to get a paycheck in the next 2 weeks. This, by itself, is a huge benefit. You are not stressed out when the company is not doing that great (after all, you can find yourself another job), occasional business trips are actually a pleasure and a short break from your work routine (and can actually be fun), and you often have time to think about life, maybe even read a philosophical book. These are all important things in life and there is huge benefit to being able to do this all.

 THE MORE YOU WORK, THE MORE YOU HAVE TO WORK, AND OFTEN - FOR FREE

​Now, what do you have when you are running your own business? You are the only (if you have no co-founders with equal equity proportions) person in your company responsible for getting the money to pay your employees, the daily exercise which can totally kill the effect of having more flexibility than anyone else during inevitable bad times in the company. Of course, things are great when the company is doing well – then you take time off, go on vacation, travel and have fun. But even then, you still think about your business 24/7. I mean it – you are literally thinking about it 24/7, even when you allow yourself to sleep a little.

When you only have an idea, you work hard to make sure no one copies it (and to your surprise, in a month you find 5 other companies working on exactly the same thing at the very same time). When you hired a first employee, you constantly think about increasing your company revenue, keeping his/her salary at a stable level and about motivating that single person who believed in you. The more you work, the more you have to work because you can’t trust your company to anyone else, you have to do it all by yourself because nobody can do it better than you. When you are on a flight, you are sitting with your laptop drafting investor presentations or product maps. If you are raising capital, you go from one meeting to another and keep watching the famous Steve Job’s motivational speech not to give up and not to take “no” for an answer. Then you suddenly find that someone who was supposed to be by your side "no matter what" starts to express his/her concerns about your financial situation or your commitment to your relationship. You run out of savings, have no time for doing regular doctor checkups or even for an hour of workout. You start feeling as if you are losing it all in life. So you end up being completely and totally stressed but still left with a motivation to succeed and entrepreneurial “independence”. On top of that, if you were finally able to raise money, you have a few angel investors who always think you are getting paid too much for doing too little and that you basically don’t need money at all before you raise another round. Sounds surreal but very often this is exactly what you’ll get when stepping on an entrepreneurial path.

​Now, is it all worth it? Should you be considering leaving your full-time job to go and establish your own business?  Absolutely – especially if you haven’t done this before. The only regret I may have in my life is not doing my own businesses when I was younger - instead of going to work for Clifford Chance, Morgan Stanley and other nice places. Don’t get me wrong, these companies are wonderful and they gave me a very strong foundation but I didn’t learn even 10% about business working for them. Starting a business gives you a totally different perspective on things (and make you even more valuable for employers if you ever decide to come back to a corporate world). You would probably think MBA will give you a good understanding of how to build your own empire – not even close! I got the best education possible and after I thought I learned it all, I realized I had no idea about how to build a business or even where to start. In fact, I would even argue that MBA might not be worth your time if you want to be an entrepreneur but that’s a topic for a different discussion. 

​Having said all the above and assuming you agree with me that founding your own business as early as possible is one of the best decisions in your life, here is 7 things you may want to do to be less stressed (whether you will be stressed is not even a question):

1. Get yourself a good adviser or mentor. I didn’t have those when I started. Even if not for the business advice, you need this person to give you a third-party perspective on what and how you are doing. It’s always very difficult to see the real situation from the “inside”, so you need someone smart and experienced to tell you how it looks like from the “outside” or where you might be mistaken.

2. Exercise, no matter what. Having an upcoming important investor meeting, a presentation, a product release can’t be an excuse for not doing this. You need to take good care of your body (and soul) or you will have to deal with it in a much more difficult scenario later. Take meditation classes, concentrate on your breathing, empty your mind from all the issues you are currently facing - you really need this break from time to time. I remember trying to take Tai-Chi classes when I was raising funds for my company and I couldn’t take my mind off my business, so I stopped meditating and got completely stressed out.

3. Try to find a good co-founder or strong people who you can rely on. It’s very hard to do but you need them to succeed. You may probably have to deal with fraud or betrayal or simply only a partial commitment of others, so protect yourself in the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey, even if – and especially if – people you work with are your friends or you fully trust them.

4. Listen to good music. Sounds simple? At one point in my life I found myself working 20 hours a day with no exercising and no listening to music. This lifestyle led to my divorce. Music by itself can’t save your family but it will help you take your mind off your business and then you can start thinking about other important things in life. Always pay attention to what is really important and sometimes good music helps you see things more clearly.

5. Learn to motivate the right people and don’t hesitate to fire wrong people as soon as you find that they don't fit your company. You will need to keep your team united by one goal and you will have to protect your small world (= company) from internal enemies. A wrong person on the team will definitely kill a good business if you don’t protect it enough.

6. Meet friends and new people, have casual conversations with strangers. They will give you a different perspective on whatever you are doing and will remind you that there is more to the world than just working on your startup. Communicate with as many people as you can. Different cultures, different languages, different views on everything - all of this will only benefit your thinking and your ability to adapt to the ever changing world.

7. Have faith. Whatever your religion is or even if you are not religious, believe in something bigger than yourself and your company. Trust that somehow it will all be good and constantly remind yourself that it’s the journey that matters, not the destination. Steve Jobs said “You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards.” If you think about your past, I am sure you will be able to see all those events connected with one another. All these interesting connections also exist in your present but you will only be able to fully recognize and appreciate them later. So just relax, have faith and do your best.

These all seem to be very common sense and obvious things. However, I know from my own experience that I needed someone to remind me about them. Hopefully this article will serve you as a good reminder.

One last thought - never give up or fall into depression! ​Even if it all doesn’t work out, you will get new experience and gain knowledge, and in the best case scenario you will become rich – both are very good outcomes. Try new things, experiment and do what others don't - and you will have a very interesting life which you will never regret!