This month's good stuff
How badly do you want to win? What are you doing this for?
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.
What got me thinking this month
I’m at a crossroads with my company.
Last year, I took a step back. Our growth rate took a dive. It’s what I needed to do for myself to come back stronger. It is what it is.
But the world has changed since then. It’s gotten harder to get attention, to show up in search, to sell to people who don’t want to be sold to. Everyone is their own researcher now. They want to find their own solutions in peace.
I’ve been thinking about how to move forward. What are the potential outcomes? How much effort do I actually want to put in?
Being in the game long enough does something to you. You realize there’s so much more to life than business and building for a better future. There’s the now. The now that you’re living in. The joy you can have today.
But can’t we have both?
Maybe. Some days are easier than others.
I was chatting with a founder friend who recently retired about the different ways I can approach this. Should I give it everything I have and push it to a point where it becomes a cashflow business so I can start something else? Or should I explore something new now, even though the opportunity cost of abandoning what’s already working could be too great?
Is our growth stuck because I haven’t pushed hard enough, or because the market just won’t go in that direction?
Everything takes time. There are no shortcuts. Maybe I should just focus on this and do everything I can. Stop being so distracted.
That’s the hard thing about building a business. You never know if it’s going to get where you want it to go because there are elements you just can’t control. Like the market. Even Netflix took five to seven years to convince people to switch from DVDs to digital. Sometimes you just have to wait for the world to catch up.
As I was rambling, my friend stopped me. “How badly do you want to win?“
I haven’t asked myself that in a while.
To start something else, I’d have to want to win so badly that I’d put myself through starting from scratch again. Am I ready for that? Who am I trying to prove it to? Why is what’s in front of me never enough?
My friend is in his mid 40s. He told me he just got to a point where he’s not interested in working that hard anymore. He’s been at this for two decades. He’s seen so much. He knows the psychological costs of winning. He knows he can do anything he puts his mind to, but he’s just not interested.
He said no matter what I choose, I’m still going to have to put in everything I’ve got. That’s just what it takes. You cannot do this otherwise.
But once in a while, it’s important to check in and ask yourself:
What are you doing this for?
How badly do you want to win
Quick tidbits
Stop caring about what anyone thinks. It doesn’t matter.
Roger Federer’s speech on how perfection is impossible, and the importance of moving on from the points you miss.
TED talk by Caroline Casey, Looking past limits
This month’s articles you may have missed
I’m Melissa, here’s my founder story: My unfiltered 15-year founder journey and how I got here. A complete reintroduction. This is the most complete and vulnerable thing I’ve ever written.
How I stopped feeling so behind: Are you measuring yourself against an ideal that doesn’t exist?
7 biggest lies I unlearned to get here: The 7 lies I had to unlearn in 4 decades to build my own life and follow my own script.
Why I stopped talking about what I do: Not everyone needs to understand what you’re doing. Most won’t.
Till next time,
— Melissa ✌️
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