i don't know anyone who LOVEs surfing who lost interest in surfing. i know too many founders who said they loved what they do but lost interest.
it's important to understand these 2 types of love.
most startups that a friend/investor/user showed me in the past 4 years in my industry that i felt excited or neutral about (edutech/knowledge transfer space) are dead because their founders could no longer get out of bed, a few years/months in.
makes us appreciate how hard it is to build a generational company. Coca Cola, Apple, etc.
doesn't even matter what they build. it matters why/how they keep going.
most startup content producers skip this topic (it's probably unconscious competence, aka skipping it because they assume it's common sense, except it's not common sense for most people)
here's a caring reminder for all of us who wanna spend a good portion of our lives building: We must build in a space we're intrinsically motivated to pursue, as intensely as a childhood curiosity. something we'd do if money/status wasn't a problem.
for the past year or so whenever i get intro'ed to another founder/startup in my industry, whether directly or just via a "hey sina have you seen this?" message, i still look at them with curiosity but i most certainly ask myself "are they gonna be building this next year this time?". not in the way of hating on them but genuinely wondering. sometimes i actually wish some companies would keep going and raise a ton (it generally does make it easier in the same space to raise/get adoption when your market suddenly becomes more attractive).
the startup im building is what i've been actively pursuing since i was 9, previously as a mere curiosity until became my passion and later on my purpose. it is a relationship, whether or not you are aware of it. a relationship between you and a craft. it has to make sense, and it has to feel good. it's a relationship i've worked on daily, unpaid and having gotten paid for it and having paid for it, when i had money and when i was broke and everything in between. it's come with serious trade-offs but i'm net grateful and always a work in progress. and yes there were days, like any relationship, where i had to think hard about whether it can continue to make sense.
i hope more people talk/write about these. since the world economy has gotten a lot better, a lot more people have developed a need for self-actualization. but unlike our need for food/shelter/belonging etc. that have clear outlets to fulfill, i dont think enough has been said about the outlets for fulfilling the self actualization need. it's a need, not a want.
i have almost developed a special ability to look at someone's body language and facial expressions and predict if they're out of place and are gonna quit, months or years before they do, and be right. and i guess im not the only one who can do this, which probably means that's a muscle/skill that anyone can develop. some faster than others. it probably also means one can learn it so one can somewhat avoid it.
