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How You Can Have The Time Of Your Life As A Startup CEO Even When All Hell Is Breaking Loose
I remember talking to my Dad years ago when he was running his company. My Dad used to talk about being “knocked around.”
I would say to my Dad, “It doesn’t sound like much fun. Why would you want to do this?”
“Because Brett, I’m having the time of my life.”
“It doesn’t sound like you are,” I answered.
Fast forward many years later to when I was an Entrepreneur in Residence with a VC fund in San Francisco. The fund brought me on to incubate a new startup.
I was talking with my Dad about the work I was doing getting my company off the ground. One thing I remember saying (naively) to my Dad was, “I think I should only be CEO for ten years maximum. Then someone else should take over.”
My Dad laughed and said, “You’ll get knocked around like I did, but you’ll never want to quit.
“Trust me.”
My Dad’s comment stuck with me as I got my company off the ground. Sure enough, I was getting knocked around on a regular basis too.
There were always issues that seemed to have nothing to do with the fun stuff of building a company:
