On rebel fighting

Disclaimer: I don’t want this to sound like I’m comparing entrepreneurship to real war activities. I am not. However, I can imagine there are some strong similarities in how we experience both situations.

Why it matters

We understand by intuition what is PTSD, the post traumatic stress disorder. It’s mostly linked to experiences like wars, sexual abuses, violence, etc.

Could we, however, relate it to the traumas we undergo as startup entrepreneurs? I think - yes.

Imagine

Imagine you’re a soldier of a rebellion troop. Your fight started so long ago, you can no longer recall the life before. You live in the woods, battling with the enemy everyday. Trying to survive the day. Going to sleep with fear of tomorrow.

• There’s no strong army behind your back.

• You lack literally everything.

• Faith is your best weapon.

• Skills are the ammo.

• Adrenaline is the food.

• Only the team keeps you alive.

The only difference between the real war and a startup fight lies in the fact that “enemies” on your business journey are not trying to kill you… at least not literally.

Checklist: startup trauma

Is your health and life at stake? Yes, the constant stress and anxiety can easily drive you to heart attack or other physical and mental diseases.

Are you exposed to constant uncertainty? Yes, because you’re literally inventing the future. Your product, clients, team, investors, runway, scaling, recessions - frankly, you know sh*t about tomorrow.

Is your team keeping you alive? Yes. The day the team dissapears is the company’s last day. You feel that pressure. That’s why you feel not only fear of yourself, but also every single person you convinced to follow your dreams. It’s so f*ckin overwhelming.

Is your family awaiting you at home? Yes. And they are scared. Not about the business failure. They fear for you - will you come back home safely?

I think I made my point. Even writing these few points triggered anxiety inside me right now.

It feels real. I’m in that battle for 12 years now.

What others think

The hard thing isn’t dreaming big. The hard thing is waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat when the dream turns into a nightmare.

- Ben Horowitz, “The Hard Thing About Hard Things”

Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.

- Pema Chodron, “When Things Fall Apart”