The Clarity and Chaos of Startup

Startup is crazy.

You’ve heard all the cliches about it being a grind, a battle, a daily struggle. They’re all action words that could be applied to a steelworker forging sheets of metal from molten rock. An appropriate analogy since we’re also creating something from raw materials that appear completely unrelated to the final product.

But unlike a steelworker there’s an emotional side. Grinding rock and boiling it to extract the valuable metals requires the right tools and the right processes, but doesn’t require much thought. It’s the thought dimension that brings emotion to startup. That’s where the fairies and the devils play, and neither exist outside the mind.

Startup is crazy.

On a daily basis I feel I know where I’m going and what I’m doing. I have total clarity, clear purpose and feel motivated that what I’m doing will make a difference for a lot of people, some day.

And…

On a daily basis I feel I don’t know where I’m going and have no idea what I’m doing. I cannot see, have no idea why I’m doing this and feel despair that what I’m doing will make no difference to anyone, ever.

It’s the clarity and chaos of startup.

I try to rationalise, but it just is. I need to embrace it or go insane. Am I too late to embrace it?

Startup is crazy.