A founder's real edge is living their own dream, not protecting an idea anyone can copy. Imagine yourself dying: if you'd still have unfinished work, your startup matters. Ground your venture in the legacy you want on your tombstone.
To the extent that you really are totally and completely living your life, your dream, no one can compete with you. As the day of substance says, people can take and copy your idea, nobody can steal your dream. They can steal your idea, they can't steal your dream. So that is how you are able to root your startup in who you are. And here's a little exercise that I'll share with you, which is for a moment visualize that you're not 32. The average age in the room is 32. That you're 92. That you're 102. That you're 112. And you're frail, you can barely see, you know, no sex. You're basically— you can't do jack, you know, at that point, right? And so The undertaker is about to come. And what are you going to tell him? You're going to say, "Oh, it's fine, I can go." You're going to say, "Oh no, one more thing. I have to do one more thing. I'm not done." And if you can say, if that is your startup, if that is, "No, I, you know, I gotta train one more entrepreneur. I gotta, you know, I gotta translate this law because, you know, it doesn't work." Then you know that you're doing You know, that's when you know that you're really pursuing the thing that is truly meaningful. You know, and today you have the opportunity to build that vision. To look inside of yourself and say, "What is it that I want to build by the time that I'm 'apostata'?" You know? What is it that I can do today? What is it that I want my tombstone to say? About my life. And that is your vision. When you think, when you look inside yourself and say, this is how I want the world to change, this is how I want me to change, this is how I want to be at the end, then you have recreated the world.
