The Value of Startups

Prior to starting my own company, I worked at startups. From these experiences, I fell in love with making something from nothing. You work crazy hours and wear many hats in the hopes of growing your idea into a novel product or service that you can get on the market. It’s not easy. It takes a certain person to join a startup. You have to have a tolerance for risk. And, starting your own company takes this tolerance to a whole new level. Yet, if you take this risk to believe in yourself, your idea, your abilities, and in some cases your team, you will add so much value to our world. 

Though working at a startup and being an entrepreneur is far from easy, it’s more than worth it. This is because the challenges you face provide some of the greatest learning opportunities and chances for personal development. Let’s take 2020, for example. Entrepreneurs like everyone else felt the brunt of working from home coupled with the stress of the virus. However, it’s the opportunities that entrepreneurs found in this experience that matter most. For example, the remote work landscape has offered new hiring opportunities and has encouraged the development and use of secure technology and automation. All these positive changes came about from embracing the unknown. 

Even when entrepreneurs are not thrown by societal circumstances, it is natural to make mistakes. For example, those leading a startup for the first time often try to take on everything themselves. Leaders either think that people can read their minds or fail to self-manage their thoughts and emotions. However, startups prepare you to overcome such challenges. Resilience, adaptivity, soliciting feedback, maintaining perspective, and adopting a growth mindset are all things that cannot be taught; rather, they are learned from being at a startup and are the solution to some of the biggest challenges entrepreneurs and leaders face. I feel strongly that working at a startup will dramatically accelerate a person's growth and learning because you are required to tackle challenges in many parts of the business.

Once entrepreneurs embrace the mistakes and curveballs, they’ll be able to use their startup experience to achieve a new positive perspective. Achieving “eudaimonia,” or “sustainable happiness,” comes from facing challenges, exploring potentials, and then using grit (as defined by Angela Duckworth) to achieve self-discovery, improvement, and purpose. The first few startups I was a part of did not succeed. However, an amazing number of my startup colleagues sought eudaimonia by joining other companies or founding our own (like myself, Krenar Komoni, Jose Bohorquez, Alex Bugeja, Kush Gulati, and Russ Cyr). And ultimately, you need to keep going and find purpose in what you do because startups are essential for our world.

Startups that get the most attention often serve the top ten percent of society. However, we are currently in a new wave where startups made for the ordinary person (like Acorns or WeeCare) are gaining traction, tackling large markets, and solving essential pain points. Today, startups provide more value than ever by allowing those of us willing to take the risk to combine fulfilling our passions with identifying niches and gaps in the market. And this is where you see the most value. When you can tackle these challenges head-on and fuel them with your passion (or even eudaimonia), you create a better world in the process.