Difference between winners and losers
When I quit my job to start a company, my boss made fun of me.
Hi, it’s Melissa, and welcome (back) to “your founder next door”, a weekly publication with stories and tidbits of my human journey bootstrapping eWebinar to $5m ARR. No BS, just straight-up truth bombs on what it’s like to build a company without an abundance of resources or friends in high places.
15 years ago, I quit my job at SAP to start a company. A week later, my old boss and VP made fun of me in public.
I was walking around in my neighborhood where the office was. A few execs were having Friday happy hour on the patio as I walked past them.
My ex-VP shouted, “Hey Melissa, I heard you’re starting your own company!?”
Thinking he was going to wish me luck, I responded, “Yes! I am!”
He said, “What are you going to do? Walk dogs or something?”
The whole table laughed, including my ex-boss. I walked away and tried not to let it bother me. They were grown men in management, picking on a hopeful 27-year old. It was childish, condescending, and unnecessary.
Both of them are still climbing corporate ladders at other companies.
This incident had no impact on my professional life. I was annoyed by the comment at the time but it didn’t make me question myself nor influence my will to move forward. For some reason, I still catch myself thinking about this day from time to time.
I’m telling this story for three reasons:
1. No matter how good you are, nobody thinks you’re going to win until you’ve won. I was the top inside sales exec for my region back then, and I was still ridiculed by the people who hired me.
2. What you say to other people matters, even if you think it doesn’t. Your careless words could be sitting in the back of their mind for a long time. What is the point?
3. Whether someone believes in you or not has no influence on your success. Your ability to win is not determined by someone else’s inability to see it. Whether they’re strangers or your parents, their opinion does not matter.
Losers will drag you down because they can’t stand the thought of you being better than them.
Winners will take you with them because they know how lonely it can be at the top.
Till next time,
— Melissa ✌️
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It's an almost universal first-time founder experience to get laughed at by someone of higher status. It sucks, but can sometimes be pretty motivating, too.
Assholes deserve their own ring in hell. The 10th one.