“Don't romanticize the journey”: A founder's warning to the ambitious

Elena Popovici loves what she does.

She’s co-founder and co-director of Bilbao Slush'D, dubbed the Tomorrowland for startups. It’s an event that shakes up the traditional conference format, bringing together entrepreneurial legends to take part in immersive experiences that spark genuine connections within the community.

But before she pursued her own venture, she spent years mentoring start-up founders; what she discovered about the typical traits and mistakes of founders might just surprise you.

Do you have to love your job?

In his now-famous commencement address, Steve Jobs told Stanford students: “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”

He’s right; to an extent. Happy workers are 13% more productive. But this expectation of ‘love’ can also be counter-productive.

Married to the job

Average job tenure is becoming shorter and 83% of Gen Z workers define themselves as "job hoppers”. Maybe people aren’t willing to put up with as much as before - which is no bad thing. Or maybe people are searching for that one perfect connection; a job they truly love.

But this grandiose expectation can be paralyzing for young people who aren’t yet sure of their strengths and passions, but at the same time view their job as a part of their identity (97% of Gen Z). The bar is terrifyingly high.

On the other hand, previous generations often blew workplace ‘love’ out of proportion. People were commonly said to be ‘married to the job’ and teams were branded ‘families’. Only recently has workplace culture shifted away from this overly intimate (and toxic) language.

Successful people “don’t love all that they do”

This is why Marcus Buckingham, author of “Love and Work”, is reframing what it means to love your job. He believes this is the key to career success, but it doesn’t mean what we think.

“When you do a study group, you’re studying highly successful people in any role…They don’t love all that they do, but they do find love in what they do…There’s a frequency and an everydayness to finding love in what you do.”

This means not killing yourself to find that one exact fit but instead finding elements to love in many things. Purpose, development, people - whatever it may be. It means seeing that, just like in the rest of life, love is often found in the small things.

3 ways to make investors fall in love with your company

Pol Karaso Rius is not afraid to disrupt markets. The aeronautical engineer turned entrepreneur co-founded Boxmotions to revolutionize the storage industry. Now, he’s founded Ealyx to provide cutting-edge payment solutions for retail businesses and fight against the take-make-waste consumption model.

1?? First, treat them like partners, not an ATM—truly understand their goals (including how they’ll exit), and if your paths don’t align, move on.

2?? Second, add just enough FOMO but never overhype—empty hype without some real backing will get you nowhere.

3?? Lastly, you already have the passion, so focus on finding a compelling way to tell your story and cut through the noise of a thousand other pitches.

Words by Emma Baigey, Lead Copywriter @ Factorial

Illustration by Ainhoa Valero Blanquer, Graphic Designer @ Factorial

Motion graphics by Enrique R. Dávila, Brand Design Lead @ Factorial