The Pragmatic Founder's Axiom
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The Pragmatic Founder's Axiom
When making any important decisions about designing your company, just remember this.
No one cares about your startup the way you do.
No one.
Your investors don’t. Your employees don’t. Your customers don’t.
Hopefully your cofounders do, but in all likelihood they don’t either.
It’s just how it goes.
Part of the reason why this dynamic plays out is the Stockholm Syndrome of thinking about your idea constantly for months and maybe years, maybe even before you started building.
Part of it is the sheer intensity of the emotional experience of trying to build a company.
But I think the bulk of the reason is that the Vision you develop over time as a way to structure your leadership philosophy and blaze a path vividly into the future eventually radicalizes you.
And that’s a good thing.
At least, they’re irrational when optimizing for common quality of life metrics like financial security, balanced relationship building, opportunity for recreational activity, and emotional consistency.
So in order to cope with the stress, the uncertainty, and the statistical evidence against you, you build a deep conviction that what you’re doing is worth it (or you quit).
Ideally, that conviction is built on a foundation of market validation and data, but I think it happens no matter what.
So when you’re making decisions in the thick of it, remember that your perspective is unique and that others will perceive your choices using a fundamentally different chain of logic than you.
Good luck.
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