Emotional Marathon of Early Stage Startup

In an early-stage startup, every day feels like an emotional rollercoaster. 🎢

One day, I feel great! The signal is so clear. We WOW’d a customer. We came up with a new perspective. Things feel obvious, and we are going down the right path.

Then, you wake up the next day, and the traction slows down. We have a fire we need to put out. The ideas are starting to contradict. We are in a fog all of a sudden.

And emotionally, it feels overwhelming. Confusing. Unsteady.

That’s the part no one warns you about. It’s not just the long hours, the decisions, or the uncertainty.

It’s the emotion of caring so much and still not knowing if it’ll work.

I don’t expect to get it right the first time.

I do expect us to learn faster than everyone else.

But also, there is a lingering feeling that we don’t want to get it wrong.

Or wasting time.

Or miss the mark.

It’s a big emotional discipline.

When the outcome is unclear like this… all I can do is commit to the process.

Have a reflection routine, practice gratitude 🙏, capture learnings as part of the journey, and embrace those small wins (don’t jump over them).

Take care of my body and my mind.

Even when things are not working, keep investing in this foundation.

I can't control how every day goes. But I can control how I carry it.

Because I can’t control how every day goes.

But I can control how I carry it.

Don’t bring the highs home.

Don’t bring the lows home.

Stay steady. Stay thoughtful.

Protect my peace. Don’t sway so hard.

Of course, there are moments I look back and think,

“Damn, we could have gone faster.”

But I try my very best, to look back and say,

“Look what we accomplished. Look how much we’ve learned.”

We find signals, and we move towards them.

We keep staying in motion.

Startups are marathons. And it’s not flat!

It has ups, downs, detours, mud, wind, sand, and some magic moments you can see the peak.

That’s why building emotional stability is the real skill.

Grit is the edge.

And sometimes it’s not just a marathon, it’s a wave! 🌊

Don’t just survive it.

Learn to ride it well.

And sometimes you gotta just write some poetry.

Read more about my startup journey: https://growthwithgary.com/archive?tags=Startup

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I am Gary Yau Chan. 3x Head of Growth. Product Growth specialist. 26x hackathon winner. Building ClarityInbox. I write about #PLG and #BuildInPublic. Please follow me on LinkedIn, or read about what you can hire me for on my Notion page.