The One Secret to Success.
Just don’t quit. But how?
“A lot of being a successful CEO is not quitting. It sounds almost corny. Winners never quit and quitters never win.” Ben Horowitz
I have been working on a startup for over 4 years. In early startup life, this is a really really long time. In Silicon Valley, to be working at the same place for 4+ is unheard of. In the valley people switch jobs every 6 months, move homes every 2–3 years and change their favorite restaurant at least one a month. But in everything I have read about becoming a master or building something world class, the statistics show that the longer the master stuck with it the greater their odds were for success.
“Every great composer practiced for at least 10 years before they wrote their master work.” Malcolm Gladwell
Find Your Obsession.
Finding your passion is really in vogue these days but I think passions trend and obsessions stick. For example, I am passionate about startups, design (fashion, interior, graphic), climbing, programming and traveling. But to differentiate a passion from an obsession you have to ask yourself, and test, whether you would spend 10+ hours per day working within that domain for years to come. If so, find a problem within that domain that you like to solve. You will know when you have found your obsession when you cannot stop thinking about different iterations to solve the problem. The problem becomes one with you and you don’t want to think about anything else.
Alex Honnold is a world class climber and the first to solo climb El Capitan without ropes or any safety gear. If you have time watch the video here — it’s insanely impressive. But how did he become the best free solo climber in the world? Alex found his obsession. He realized in his early 20’s he could not live without climbing and with that he climbed almost every day for a decade before his world record climb on El Capitan. To prepare for El Capitan he spent a year climbing the route with ropes. He was so obsessed with conquering this goal that one of his friends made molds of the holds as handles for his fridge and oven, so that each time he opened them he was practicing the hand position. By the time he went to free solo El Capitan, he had every move memorized down to the exact science.
Similarly, Drew Houston mentions in his 2013 commencement speech for MIT that his childhood dog, as soon as you threw a tennis ball, she would run like Usain Bolt. “It’s that obsession, find a problem that really pulls you like that.”
Build Your Endurance.
In order to succeed, you need to have the endurance to put in the work for a long time. Alex’s ability to diligently climb El Captain almost every single day for a whole year before free soloing takes great mental focus, discipline and strength.
“Everybody wants to reach the peak, but there is no growth on the top of a mountain. It is in the valley that we slog through the lush grass and rich soil, learning and becoming what enables us to summit life’s next peak.” Andy Andrews
Your true grit and obsession are tested during this endurance phase. Will you give up when things get tough? Or when things get really tough? When everything falls apart and you hit rock bottom… oh wait that was not rock bottom, this is rock bottom. Can you pick yourself up each time to realize that you have an even bigger mountain to climb than you thought?
Here are a few things that have helped me build my endurance. Confidence, celebrate the small successes and take breaks/walk away.
You have to have confidence in yourself. Sounds like something your kindergarten teacher tells you, but when things fail over and over, it’s easy to build self doubt. Surround yourself with people who believe in you and those that do not. Some days those that do not believe in your will give you that fight — that fire in your gut that gets you back on your feet and reminds you of your confidence in yourself.
Celebrate the small successes. Getting to that final destination is a series of steps. Celebrate each step and be mindful of the journey.
It can be really tough to celebrate the small successes because all you want are the big successes. The $$$ customer, close your VC round or huge growth. But these big successes do not happen without the small steps along the way. For Alex Honnold, he could celebrate conquering those tough individual moves that were essential steps before conquering his free solo climb.
When it gets really tough, walk away for a day. Take a trip. Shut off your phone. Get some mental space. You will come back with new energy and clarity. This is super super important — don’t be afraid to walk away.
“We will make it because we are young and we will never, never give up.” Alibaba Founder, Jack Ma.
Learn to be Patient.
In startup life you are making a bet on the future. You have no control on how close or far that future will present itself. But if you are confident in your vision and that that will be the future one day, it’s worth it to be patient.
“You are building a tremendous amount of knowledge about the company, the market, the customer and the product. The longer you have to apply that the better your chances are. If you can somehow stay in the box, then, amazingly, you might find yourself in a good position.” Ben Horowitz.
With Alex Honnold, he had no control over when he would be mentally and physically ready to solo El Capitan. The longer he had to train and prepare the better his chances were at succeeding and if he went before he was ready he was putting his life in danger. He had to be patient with his progress and trust that one day he would be ready. In addition to himself personally being ready there were many factors out of his control. For example rainfall, temperature or winds. Waiting for the right time of year and day to climb led to his success.
“If everything you do needs to work on a three-year time horizon, then you’re competing against a lot of people. But if you’re willing to invest on a seven-year time horizon, you’re now competing against a fraction of those people, because very few companies are willing to do that. Just by lengthening the time horizon, you can engage in endeavors that you could never otherwise pursue. At Amazon we like things to work in five to seven years. We’re willing to plant seeds, let them grow — and we’re very stubborn.” “We’ve had three big ideas at Amazon that we’ve stuck with for 18 years, and they’re the reason we’re successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient.” By investing on a seven year time frame Jeff Bezos generates a behavior-based moat since other companies who invest for the short term flee Amazon’s approach to preserve their financial “ratios.”
Around 2010, Hayneedle and Wayfair (two online e-commerce sites that sell furniture) attended the largest North American furniture mart in High Point North Carolina. Hayneedle and Wayfair both were looking for furniture vendors to sell their products via e-commerce on their marketplaces. At this time this was a really crazy idea. So crazy that 98% of the furniture vendors they talked to said “no, we do not do e-commerce.” I bet those same vendors feel differently today. Today Wayfair is a public company with a market cap of $7 billion. They believed in their vision of the future and being patient has led to their success.
Find your obsession, build your endurance and be patient. That’s the real recipe to conquer your wildest dreams.
I’m taking on a writing challenge to publish something new every day for a week. If you want to read what’s next, subscribe here, and check out what my partner in crime is writing on her blog. Comments/suggestions/ questions/feedback welcome.
