These series of guest posts are written by the teams attending the Tetuan Valley Startup School 2011 Fall edition. This post is written by Tony Fernandez, cofounder of Groupject.
As one of the few fortunate enough to have been accepted into an internet accelerator program and finish, I find myself feeling at ease, confident and excited for the future. However, I am not sure the rest of the alumni in my program, nor the other young entrepreneur’s out there mirror my feelings. My opinion is based on the various conversations I’ve had and from various blog posts of entrepreneur’s that dramatically talk about their stress, discontent and cynicism towards the difficulty of their newly started project. I began to think about why my internal dialogue differs from these other overly cynical entrepreneurs. I see starting a business, creating a product, and or participating in a startup accelerator program as an exercise of patience. As I strive to accomplish my objectives, I realize I must be patient with the process. Becoming a successful entrepreneur requires patience and practice.
Frame of Mind
Stress and discontent are a by-product of ones disconnect between expectations and reality. When framed this way, it’s a little easier to digest the trials and tribulations of doing anything, not just creating a product or service. The neurosis of a prototypical entrepreneur has to do with lack of clarity, falling short on a product release, fudging a presentation and or a million other things. But this is life! Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin or any other big shot deal with same obstacles that any of us face on a day to day basis, but on a grander scale. So are they super human because they lead movements? No! They started small and began building their empire one brick at a time. In other words, expect to fail, so when you do you’ll be okay when it happens. You will learn from it. This is exactly what the Lean Startup Model preaches:
Idea (hypothesis)
Test.idea (asap)
If test = fail
then pivot
else
build
end
Repeat
Philosophize
Get it? Alright, so maybe pseudo-code doesn’t articulate what I am trying to say. When in doubt, philosophize. Luckily, there is a branch of philosophy made for entrepreneurs: Stoicism. Unlike many other schools of thought, it doesn’t concern itself with elaborate theories of existence or of the universe. Its main focus is mastering yourself (I am not referring to the popular Seinfeld episode ‘Master of your own domain’); the ability to control one’s own destructive emotions. Core to its doctrine is that life is tough and full of surprises. Therefore, we must learn to be mentally strong and capable of freeing ourselves from our impulses so we respond – not react.
Fortunately, Stoicism is built for application. It’s practices will help you be a better entrepreneur and more successful person in all of life’s aspects.
Exercise #1: Practice Misfortune.
“It is in times of security that the spirit should be preparing itself for difficult times; while fortune is bestowing favors on it is then is the time for it to be strengthened against her rebuffs.”
-Seneca
Seneca is saying when we are doing well, prepare yourself for the worst so we do not fear loss. But this must be practiced. He advocated that we dedicate a few days of the month to eat little food, wear your worst clothes and sleep on the floor. Then you can ask yourself, “Is this really what I am afraid of?”.
Exercise #2: Train your Perception to Avoid Good and Bad
One of the most famous Stoic’s was Marcus Aurellius – Emperor of the Roman Empire. He said,
“Choose not to be harmed and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed and you haven’t been.”
The practice is to turn every negative experience, obstacle or difficulty into a positive one. Once mastered, one no longer reacts to impulses and will be able to control the outcome of anything that comes their way. To the Stoic, nothing is good or bad; everything is an opportunity.
Exercise #3: Nothing lasts forever
“Alexander the Great and his mule driver both died and the same thing happened to both.” -Marcus Aurelius
The message is be humble. Even though entrepreneur’s must think big, it does not mean one must act with a big ego. Remember how small you are and how small everything is. Practice honesty, and humbleness everyday. I think Steve Job’s said it best with,
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important”.
I believe there are good and bad entrepreneur’s. But, with practice, one can become great. It starts with the right frame of mind.
If you’re interested in reading more about Stoicism check out the following links to Amazon:
Seneca: Letters from a Stoic
On the shortness of Life by Seneca
Meditations by Marcus Aurellius (My personal favorite)
Tim Ferris writes in depth about Stoicism for entrepreneurs, which was my first introduction to these ideas. His ideas are reflected in this text.
