Living through the noise

I recently co-founded a company, participated in an incubator, and am just finishing up 4 weeks in San Francisco trying to raise money. This reflection is about one of the most challenging things I have experienced on this journey so far: not becoming distracted by the noise.

People tell you that building a startup is hard. You acknowledge, in theory. Then you build one, and the difficulty is no longer cognitive, it’s emotionally and mentally pervasive. Prior to starting, your plans and strategies are silky smooth in your head. Pretty soon, however, the silk meets the rough, dirty road of reality and becomes tattered, worn and stained through the numerous challenges that accompany creating something that previously did not exist.

The first thing you realize when you begin the startup journey is how much noise exists around you. Some noise, such as press coverage, new competitors, and ill advice can be avoided or dealt with easily enough. It’s a mental training exercise against outside forces seeking to de-rail you. Other sources of noise, however, are more difficult to block out, since they originate not from the outside, but from within you.

Biased self-reinforcement

Entrepreneurs are hopeless optimists. Overall this is a good thing, as without optimism in the face of hardship, few of us would succeed. Optimism is what carries our hearts through the inevitable long droughts of suspended disbelief (since entrepreneurs are optimists, when challenged we suspend disbelief rather than embrace doubt).

However, sometimes we fall prey to biased self-reinforcement. Symptomatic of acquired bipolar disorder (another trait of entrepreneurs, once they start building), we lean on various external crutches, and misconstrue them to be the validation we crave so desperately; a kind word from a friend, encouragement from an investor, congratulations from a colleague.

Of course, these things are not wrong in themselves, but they become noise when they occupy the place in our mind that should be reserved for intrinsic belief and confidence. If you allow these things to fuel your fire, you will fizzle out when the rain comes.

A friend told me once that startups rarely fail because of their product or the market. Product not right? Change it. Market not buying? Pick another one. The real reason startups fail is because the founders give up.

I like to believe that all ideas, in their infancy, are good ideas. They must have some merit, otherwise we would not be inspired by them in the first place. The failure comes when the fragile idea meets the reality of a complicated and unpredictable world. Startups fail when the founder can no longer give the idea the sustenance it needs to mature.

So what gives the founder the ability to continue to feed her idea?

Belief through knowledge

The trouble with telling a troubled founder to believe in her startup is she can’t walk away and just do it. She can suspend her disbelief, but not indefinitely. How then do we build belief?

We start with an idea that resonates with some part of our innate creativity. This is the genesis of most startups. Every time this idea is challenged, we confront the challenge through attaining greater knowledge than what we previously had. Without knowledge and understanding, beliefs do not take hold.

I think periods of suspended disbelief are inevitable even for the strongest of minds, as knowledge takes time and effort attain. Sometimes it takes several attempts, and sometimes we may not get there at all. One thing for certain is building knowledge takes honesty and a good deal of self awareness.

Which is where noise comes in again.

March by the beat of your own drum

Peter Thiel famously challenges founders he meets by asking what they believe that nobody else does. Since the question is not exactly practical, he probably asks it to filter for people who march by the beat of their own drum.

Seeking refuge in the quiet space of your own beliefs gives you a strength that is renewable, empowering, and truly formidable. It is a stabilizer, cushioning the trough of sorrow and tempering the periods of soaring elation.

If you’re crazy enough to be a founder, don’t be a founder who feeds off the drug of noise. Whether you’re the darling or the joker of the startup world, believe in yourself, believe in your idea and when you cannot believe, have the courage to find the knowledge that will help you believe. One day the world will believe what you believe.