What’s so hard about a start-up?
Quite often its said that a start-up requires some kind of sacrifice or contribution that is an order of magnitude higher than working a “normal” job. I suspect there are few who would question the premise although I doubt that you could take a poll of ten people and get more than three people to say the same thing as to what exactly that sacrifice is. I had time to think about this question this weekend as I’ve been recovering from the flu. Starting around Wednesday, I couldn’t hold down any food whatsoever. By Thursday night, I had thrown up about 10 times. Needless to say, it wasn’t fun at all.
The first year (and in particular the first few months) of a start-up is a very fragile time. Employees know they’re in a high risk situation and there hasn’t really been enough time for predictable routines to set in. Most people like routines. They like to know what happens the minute they arrive at the office. Wrinkles in routine can cause some (very valuable) people to wonder in the back of their minds whether or not they are doing the right thing for their career. For a start-up CEO, you are a critical component in this fragile equation because when routines are interrupted, people look to you to reassure them. In a start-up environment, it is the very presence of the founding CEO that is crucial. Long hours aren’t just necessary because there is much to be done and few resources to accomodate but also because the CEO plays the crucial leadership and psychological role that keeps the team together. Given Microsoft’s size, they can lose the bid to block Kai-Fu Lee from working at Google but in the grand scheme of things his departure really has very little impact. Losing one key developer in a start-up with less than 10 people can put the entire project in jeopardy.
For me, what’s so hard about a start-up is that you:
1) Will have to work many, many hours if you are doing your job as a founder correctly
2) You must be accessible at home via phone and email during odd hours
3) You must take responsibility for the smallest detail
4) You must deal with the issue of self preservation with fewer vacation days
5) You accept the burden of stress and the need to be in multiple places at the same time
6) You must do all of this cheerfully and willingly
7) You must assume most everything needs your attention without coming across as a fatalist