Coming up for air
and other tactics for defeating drowning
As I continue to explore the startup world through the very ‘shared abstraction’ my mind presents on a daily basis I hope to be able to catalogue the shift in critical thinking that develops through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship.
When I first started @urbanbuddy we knew it was going to be hard. We understood that starting a business is difficult, takes a long time, and will push you to your limits. What we didn’t realize was how far it would push.
I have a terrible habit of looking back every couple of weeks to gauge progress and it feels a lot like swimming in a stormy ocean with all of your clothes on.
The weight of the soaked cotton impedes your movement and begins to drag you towards the bottom. When you first jump in you have the strength, energy and ambition to keep afloat. As your time in the water continues, your body tires and you begin to conserve energy. Instead of keeping your head high and dry you begin to duck underwater, gathering strength to push your way back to the top for air every couple of seconds. Each time it gets harder and harder to reach the surface and takes longer and longer to recover the strength to once again break the surface tension. Each time only enough for a smaller and smaller breath. Pretty soon you begin to swallow water and can only muster the strength to break the surface with your hand. You look to the surface through stinging eyes as the light dances off of the waves and rays pierce through the water to the depths you now inhabit. You sink to the bottom, light disappearing as you descend.
Shed the clothes.
As you slip out of the burden of the soaked cotton you can feel the weight lifted. You are once again lean and agile. You can push to the surface much easier and once you arrive you slow your breathing, methodically recovering your breath. You fill your lungs deep with air. Your body is buoyant and begins to float on its own. All that is required is broad strokes of your arms as you glide along the surface.
Once recovered, you make your way towards shore. Crawling along the beach you look off into the distance to the peak towering above. You stand to your feet, solid rock below your feet, and you walk.
Onward
Upward
