In 5 Minutes, For 15 Weeks

“It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.”

― Friedrich Nietzsche

My life these days can be summed up by the above image: dozens and dozens of tabs opened, each containing information that contributes to our pitch—too afraid of closing anything in case those are important.

Every single thing feels important at this point.

We managed to use the extra time we have over the Thanksgiving break to work on our proto-pitch. Working on it also meant we had to work out some kinks so we could be succinct and persuasive, but the former was extremely tricky. We had worked on this for a seemingly long time—how do we trim it down to a 5–7 minute pitch? This really forced us to think what’s the most important and convincing information that we needed to convey for the pitch. It also pushed my writing and verbal skills in ways that my literature classes didn’t. I truly realized the importance and challenge of succinctness.

This was the same for our demo. How do we provide enough context to show the problem, how we’re solving it and how we can provide value in 1.5 minutes?!

In theory, we knew where we should aim to be. Everything we say should go beyond the surface, but not get too detailed. But the nagging question is: what is that sweet spot?!

This took awhile for us to figure. We had to examine each line, word and sentence and consider its intention. What was it for? Did it strengthen or support the previous point? Should this be part of the pitch or could it be a part of the appendix? I have to admit—this challenge excited the writing nerd in me.

As we worked out the kinks, more questions arose—we recalled questions that others had for us, and questions that we still had for ourselves. This led me to a dark, dark hole. Every question led to another for me, and I felt extremely pressured when I wasn’t confident of the answer that I had thought of, or worse—when I didn’t have an answer to it. I felt like I needed to be confident and to know it all—that when the team didn’t have the answer, I should. And when I didn’t, I felt like I let the team and myself down. However, I soon realized that that’s an extreme unrealistic weight that I’m putting on myself, and that having all those thoughts in my head was only going to turn my hair grey (or bald).

So, we decided to create a list of all the questions that we got asked during interviews and feedback and addressed most of it during our meeting just now. I would say that this made me feel so much better. And stupid at the same time. I’m not sure why I didn’t share my doubts and worries with the team earlier (as you can see I’m still having dependency issues). I’m not supposed to know everything—duh! That’s why I’m in a team. Most importantly, that’s why I’m back in school. To learn.

This realization made me feel significantly less anxious. As the CEO, I feel immense pressure to deliver—to ensure the team’s efforts and the outcome of it aligns. But the fact is that I can only try my hardest. The team and I can prep and prep and prep our hardest. But the outcome of it isn’t something that we can control. I realized that the reason why I’ve been so stressed is because I’ve been stuck on the wrong mindset—the wrong equation.

✖️ Effort = Outcome = Value

I realize that, if I keep thinking this way, then I’m setting myself and the team up for disappointment. I recall my days at a startup and remember the countless times we faced rejections—we simply lift our heads high and move on to the next meeting or milestone.

✔️ Value = Mission

How we find value should derive from the ones that we want to create in the first place. And we definitely should not let the outcome of this pitch determine that if we truly believed in our mission.

TL;DR? Que sera sera.