To the Founders,
To the founders — the culture shifters and the world changers. A rare bread of risk-takers and ambition-filled innovators. To the try-hard failures. The Get-back-upers. Athletes of the mind and acrobats of technology.
The ones who love technology for the promise it brings. The promise of a better world. A better future for ourselves, those we love, and those we have empathy for. Working day and night to bring change — one mouse-click at time.
Not profits. Not marketeers. Not moguls or SEO “experts.” Not growth hackers or exit planners. Not easy-way-outers or cake-walkers.
To the real try-hards. The try so hard it hurts kind of people. Even if you fail, rather, even when you fail — every single day. But, you try harder!
To the late-night toilers, the sacrifice-takers. The give-your-pitch-to-a-room-full-of-critics people. Asking for help. Asking for users to give you a chance. Asking for 5mins to prove it. Asking for investors to say yes. Please say yes!
Hearing “no.”
Hearing “your product isn’t good enough.”
Hearing “You don’t have it.”
But you don’t care, because you believe in the idea, the underlying issue, and won’t stop until it’s resolved. It has to be you, because if its not you, then who?
To the ones unable to wait on the world to change. The gotta-do-it people. The can’t-help-it people. The pixel pushers, the people mobilizers, and the vision-casters. The email senders. The follow-upers. The follow-up-again people. And again.
Here’s to the stay-up-laters and the get-up-earliers. The founder with two jobs. The college student with debt, insecurity, BUT a passion!
Here’s to the late-night-email-checkers. The proof-readers, the Oops-I-forgot-to-proof-readers. The wake-up-and-check-product-hunters. Asking, “Hey, can you hunt my product?” I just need to get to the home page!
The finding-product-market-fitters. Trying, trying, wrong! Trying again. Slipping into the valley of dispair. Pivoting to B2B, pivoting back. Testing this, asking everyone, anyone for some “quick feedback.”
Cold email.
Cold email.
What am I doing wrong?
Here’s to the boot-strappers. The I-can’t-find-anyone-to-fund-me-founders. I’ll try kickstarter. I’ll ask my family. I’ll ask my friends. Anything for one shot.
Here’s to the pitch-practicers. Elevator pitch, long-form pitch. The pitch in a pitch.
Here’s to the founder who wants to be Steve, but you can’t be Steve. To the one who knows they can’t be Steve but wants to dent the universe anyways:
Here’s the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. — Think Different Apple Campaign
Being a founder, its a struggle, but for many of us its the only way. Corporate won’t work. Freelance won’t work.
Cheers to the founder, may you achieve success, but not for your sake, but for the sake of people all around the world. If you don’t find your own success, may you buy into someone else’s dream and change the world that way. After all, a clock needs both a face and the tiny gear within it.
We’re dreamers that do, and creators that hustle. We are founders, designers, programmers, nerds, business-gurus, makers: a rare breed.
