Before you start: are you even ready?

Key aspects of building mental and financial resilience. As no one can guarantee startup's success, make sure to don't sabotage yourself. Part 1: Mental Preparation

Why This Is Important

Everyone says, “It’s a marathon, not a sprint.” A marathon lasts around 4 hours. But to start a marathon, you need at least 16 weeks of preparation. So don’t fool yourself—it’s the same with a startup. This article is about building the endurance to be ready when the race day is due.

I told my future boss during interview: “I want to be here for 5 years and then start my own business.” … but after 5 years, I realized I wasn’t ready—mentally nor financially.

So, I took a step back to fix the basics before taking off.
You can’t be ready to switch from a 9-5 job into a founding role (I thought I was, and I was lying to myself). You can’t predict the future, but you can minimize the impact of unfavorable events that will happen - follow me, to learn how I think about minimizing risks of bootstrapping.

It’s like taking a car to a mechanic before going on a long road trip—you want to make sure there’s gas (you know you’ll refill that on the way) but also check oil, brakes, tires (all those things you don’t want to worry about as you go).

Part 1: Mental Preparation

Finish Therapy

My personal view is that if everyone in the world finished therapy before having children, there would be no wars in two generations.

In some circles, it’s still taboo, and some people simply can’t afford it—but you, as a potential founder, are probably in a place where you can do it. I highly recommend it.

Why do you want to start a business? Is it to prove something to yourself or your parents? Is it because you’re unhappy with your current job? Or are you deeply passionate about the act of creation or the problem you want to solve? I won’t judge the motivation (that’s hopefully intrinsic, as it should last for a long time), but it’s wise to know which battle you’re fighting.

You won’t get more time as you kick off, so do your future self (and your future cofounders and employees) a favor and face the hard issues from your past right away. Insecurities are not cool, and it’s easy to doubt yourself along the process.

If you think therapy isn’t for you, consider at least some form of mindfulness or meditation as you need to calm down and unwind from time to time:

• Recommendation #1: MBCT (Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy ) backed by Oxford scientists (it’s far away from spiritual gurus, it’s a science based stress reduction course).

• Recommendation #2: Balance App for guided & unguided meditation as an alternative (I believe they still do 1 year free subscriptions).

Work on Habits

Habits take time to form, especially when replacing bad ones with good ones.
Think of it: you can hide your Monday’s low performance at work after a whole-weekend rave from your colleagues on Zoom, but you won’t hide it from yourself.

There won’t be anything better you can learn about habits than "Atomic Habits" by James Clear, but below is my perspective on what I think is most important while preparing to launch.

Physical

Go to a physioterapist and fix that pain you’ve been complaining about for years. If you find a good one, they may even help you prepare your workspace to handle the marathon of hard work. For me, it meant a standing desk, walking treadmill, losing 8kg, and getting back to moving my body a few times a week.

Pick your favorite form of activity, just don’t say, “I’ll start working out once my notice period ends”. Don’t trust me, trust science: exercise promotes neuroplasticity, which increases cognitive abilities - you gonna need these a lot 😅

Sleep

Start with the book "Why We Sleep" (or just watch Walker’s TED Talk) - TL:DR, just start taking sleep seriously.

Make conscious decisions about your sleep schedule, think about caffeine/alcohol intake, chill out before going to bed, drop notifications and screen time in the evening, etc. Think of sleep hygiene as you would think of body hygiene.

I find a mattress to be the best investment I’ve made so far (maybe because I didn’t buy Bitcoin in 2014). Sleep should be for recovery, not for struggles and waking up with pain. If you spend 1k EUR on a good quality mattress, and you think of a super optimistic 5 years till cashing some part of your startup, then it’s around 0.5 EUR/day. Half the price of another espresso shot, and giving way more energy.

If you’re not convinced by the math above, check How Lack of Sleep Impacts Cognitive Performance and Focus 🥱

Focus

A must-have read is Cal Newport’s “Deep work” - it’s all about the ability to concentrate on a difficult task for prolonged periods without getting distracted.

There won’t be much more one can tell than the author of the book, but take this seriously and build a habit of getting yourself into the state of high performance on cognitively demanding tasks.

You won’t find it from day one; you’ll struggle. But you want to be in a place where you start working on your startup and quickly progress with discovery, interviews, iterations, and not start building up a muscle of concentration.

I recommend Brain.fm for getting into the zone- can’t imagine my focus time without that app anymore.

Hint: if you sleep well, it’s easier to get in the zone☝🏻

Anyway - just find your routine and start building that deep work muscle as soon as you can. In your startup world, there won’t be any demand for filling useless reports or attending 15+ people meetings with no agenda and outcomes, so your shallow work skills won’t be needed anymore 💩

Part 2: Financial Preparation - Next Week

Respectfully of your attention span & time this Sunday - next part to be continued.