Where are we?
A friend I hadn’t spoken with in some time recently asked me, “How’s it going with Masawa?”. I replied, without missing a beat, “It’s going exactly like it should be going!”.
What a non-answer, Joshua! Or was it?
An expected answer could have been: “It’s going great! Sooo good. We’re killing it.” This answer allows you to confidently spotlight the past few months while honing in on how vanquishing one milestone after the next helps inch towards success on the linear journey. It also allows you to minimize some of the perceived setbacks as merely bumps in the roads.
An opposite answer could have been: “Phew, life is rough. This is hard.” This answer allows you to open up on the struggles via a mini pity party because the expected outcomes on the linear journey have not been realized.
Make no mistake, in the past 1.5+ years of Masawa, I’ve given my fair share of both answers, although most have been on the positive side. I am a startup founder, after all, and a healthy dose of excess optimism is required to keep motivations high, especially since I believe deeply in our work.
But nothing is linear. Nothing.
Yes, we’ve had great successes, most importantly the strong community we’ve built. The founders we’re working with — and will be working with — are incredible changemakers, driven to sustainably catalyze access to mental wellness around the globe. Our team and advisors is a top-notch group of mission-aligned individuals who are crafting the next generation of innovative investment mechanisms. Many donate their time and skills because of their belief in what we’re building. Yes, we have investors — mission-driven partners who value not only investing in mental wellness for social and financial outcomes, but also value nurturing the invested capital to maximize social impact, founder wellbeing, and organizational health. Yes, we’ve identified a huge gap hidden in plain sight around human capital risks that, once addressed, will lead to much stronger financial and social outcomes. We’ve also bounced back from the many setbacks we’ve been fortunate to experience, related to topics like personnel, investors, and investments. It’s never just the good or the bad at once.
The same sentiments as an organization applies in parallel to me as a human. How am I doing? I’m doing exactly how I’m supposed to be doing.
I’m a positive, motivated person, and although I consider myself to be good at caring for my mental health, not every day is a walk in the park. It’s not only that being a founder and emerging fund managing partner is at the sametime exhilarating and lonely, it’s that I’m a continual work in progress. I surprise myself by how long it takes to notice when something starts to go off track. Whether it’s slacking on positive eating, mindfulness, or exercise habits, or an uptick in a scarcity mindset, I don’t notice the derailment until its effects have built up and compounded: poor sleep, irritability, rumination, and/or frumpiness. I’m fortunate to have a therapy / coaching / cheerleading community to help me reset and re-calibrate when needed and steadfastly work on re-powering balance.
Just as there is no linearity, there is no shortcut. [However, I once spent 15 minutes developing a video background filter that imperceptibly flashed “Masawa is amazing, invest and become a pioneer!” on the screen behind me for attendees’ sub-consciences to enjoy. Don’t worry, I couldn’t get it to work, so I stopped developing it. Maybe.] We have to put in the work to create the value we know is needed. A fully ecologically regenerative system takes seasons upon seasons to develop, evolve, and sustain itself.
So, neither I nor Masawa is killing it, nor is life hard. Masawa and I are exactly where we need to be right now, and that will always be so, as woo-woo as it might sound. Constantly trying to peek over the next horizon prevents us from looking back and being grateful for the path we’ve already forged, while enjoying the green grass under our toes and the sunlit meadows brimming with life all around us. [I’ve been staring at Masawa’s artwork too long!]
Joshua is the Founder and Managing Partner of Masawa. He believes that investing in mental wellness, focusing on maximizing positive social impact, and founders’ mental health, and supporting their resilient organizations makes sense for society and for business.
