Founders discuss how they learned to enjoy building their companies instead of just chasing the finish line. Around 2018, before going public, they started practicing mindfulness and reframing setbacks as learning. One founder says the mental shift happened almost immediately and made everything feel less like a grind.
Chapters
I remember. I don't know if some people. I went for coffee with someone named Chris Neal. He. He. He's somebody in the Valley. And.
And I remember I said my goal, and this is before we went public.
Is to enjoy the journey more.
Because I, like, I used to kind.
Of get bogged down.
It's the thing about starting companies are highs and lows.
And 10 times a day, early on, like, literally, you go from, oh, my.
God, I just closed this person to, oh, my God, the company's not going to exist. Like, it's like 10 times a day.
That these are these huge highs and lows, and that over time, gets spread out as you become successful and you build a business, you build a team, and there's still many highs and many lows, which is much more spread out. And so it was a couple years.
Ago, a couple of years after that dinner, where I'm like, why does anyone.
Do this was a couple of years after that that I just realized, like, I think it's back to kind of.
Back to this mental health piece.
If you read a lot of the mindful mindfulness books, it's about, like, just.
Finding the joy in the moment.
Jamie, my husband, was saying, like, yeah.
Like, so when our kids are crying.
I'm gonna try and enjoy that more.
And I kind of laughed. I'm like.
He's like, but that's what it's about. And so I kind of took that, and I was like, you know what?
I'm gonna enjoy the journey more. And so it was. I think it was in 2018, so a couple years before, a year and a half before we went public, and.
I just said, I'm gonna enjoy. And so when things are bad, when there's that lull at work, I'm gonna.
Be like, how can I learn from this?
And I really, like.
It was like a mental switch overnight that I'm like, I'm just gonna enjoy the journey more. And that's been.
I.
It has been more enjoyable since I've.
Said I'm going to enjoy the highs and the lows.
And when we're in a low, I'm going to be like, what can I learn? I'm grateful to be with a teammate who wants to solve this together. We're going to get out stronger means if we're. If it's a low point, that means tomorrow is going to be better. Like, all these sorts of things. And so I did make a mental switch, and I have enjoyed it more since I've done that.
You have. So it's not just okay. It's. It's real. It's real.
It's not. It's. It's not a destination. It's. It's not like, oh, my God, I'm.
Going to go public and everything's going.
To be magically better.
No, it's not. The problems get bigger, the expectations get higher, and so you just. I just wish you should just.
