Founder or Flounder?
The question of becoming a founder of an innovation driven startup company is an interesting one to consider of myself. I have been looking at the long list of qualities that experts in the area of startups feel are important to the success of a founder and I can see clearly now that there is no doubt that I am headed for being a founder.
I can name many reasons why I go confidently in the direction of my dreams. One of the most significant is that I know that the “dream”, the idea, is on it’s way; it will come into being. There is no doubt about that. So, the only question is, do I want to ride the bumpy, windy roller coaster ride of stewardship and discovery? Absolutely!
There is so much about the work of starting and growing business that is fun and exciting for me. As a Sound Designer in the theater, I experienced the collaborative process of creation many times. It is wonderful and messy, but there are shiny moments have become the extra added rocket fuel that made it easier to give my best.
For instance, I love the moment when the light bulb goes on for an individual and for a team. There are no words to accurately describe having the honor of being a part of the energy of creation and co-creation. And when that moment is intensified by purpose, it is spectacular.
There is a term in the game of poker, to be ”all in,” which means to bet everything you have on this one moment…this one chance.
From the time I was sixteen years old, “all in” has been my guiding ethic. Whether in learning, work or relationships, I am either “all in” or not in the game. As a result of being willing to stay in the room when you want to leave, to improve a project right up to the deadline, to let every detail matter to the whole, and come back around to a topic that may seem like it is blown, I have been blessed in my business endeavors and my relationships (marriage, family, friends, employees, business associates…).
I believe that a primary contributor when people, ideas, businesses, even families flounder is a lack of clarity, and without clarity, there can be no meaningful commitment.
In truth, these are just some of the ways to succeed at being a founder, but there is a calling that is beyond the commitment. There should be fortitude and flexible inventiveness which should make success possible.
That calling is facilitates vision. I have a vision of a product, a platform that will result in helping a world full of people, many of whom have some sort of pain from having lost a loved one, to feel better.
Isn’t feeling better what every product is really about. Games, productivity tools, even specialty foods, they all came in to being because someone felt they would make the world better.
This may sound a bit ethereal but this vision is bigger than just me. In my mind, it already exists, even though right now it is only an idea. Maybe this is what Michelangelo meant when he spoke of discovering the statue within the stone:
“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.”
The internet is the block of stone, we just have to reveal the little masterpiece that is hidden within it. For me that “masterpiece” is the non-local, oddly intimate relationships that are possible when people gather, even in cyberspace. Given the circumstances, when it comes to founding a startup, “all in” is a piece of cake.
Written by Donnalynn Riley. Edited by The Revoluzionne Team.
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