The startup and the American dream
I was talking yesterday to a close friend, whom I did not see for more than a year, about my life and startup. As we were gladly debating pro’s and con’s of the American dream he forced me rationalise and verbalise why I want to be in a startup.
Most of the discussion went in the way of the American dream, odds of success, luck, and that for everyone that makes it there are millions who do not and nobody talks about their shitty life and misery. There are rarely discussions about the pain and fucked up social & family life of the ones that are somewhere in the middle of climbing the ladder. The common truth is more about depression, anxiety, no social life, see your friends and loved ones 2 hours per week, take a vacation once every 2–3 years, living with the fear that you have to please people that emotionally are distant from you (investors & business partners) while disappointing the ones with whom you have strong emotional connections (family & friends).
It was for the first time in many years I was articulating, structuring the reasons why startup world is for me.
During all this time, I had the pleasure of dealing with pain, depression, fears, results, people who believed and still do in me, the peak of daydreaming accomplishments and the bottom of my deepest fears financially, emotionally and in the end physically as I felt my body and my health was falling apart from so much stress and pure chaos.
With so much ammunition, I loaded my reasoning guns and was about to fire. But my friend has a degree in literature and it is always a pleasure to hear him talk. For me, the conversations with him have the flavour of an exotic drink, a moment I like to enjoy. So instead of talking, I listened. And, as I was falling deeper in my own thoughts, through his words all the reasons went numb, and it was simpler and much more clear for me to explain WHY.
Why startup?
Because it’s refreshing, because it makes me think, because it challenges me, because I get to meet people who did not give up, who did not resign inside and say this is the way it has always been, because it’s a way of living.
Because people who hustle are open minded, because when you have a new idea, people find 10 other views of the situation how it can be done instead of looking at you like you came down with a brain tumor, because I know I get to change someone’s life and, if lucky, many people’s lives.
I read somewhere that democracy is as imperfect as all other forms of government, but the only one compatible with the human condition that we know of. So for me the startup world and entrepreneurship represent the only point of convergence where social — cultural — economic and growth meet. It is like music and art: a state of mind.
It is not the American dream of making millions, It is not the Eastern European vision of escaping a society where black is white and white is black and you never now what is what, it is not about being my own boss and doing whatever the fuck I want, it is not about proving my family & friends I can be someone, it is not about giving back to society and making the world a better place.
