Here Are The Things No One Told You As a Startup Founder

Here Are The Things No One  Told You As a Startup Founder

As a startup founder, whether in tech or any other sector, you have one goal in mind and that is to grow your startup into a proper business either as an amazon or a Facebook at a faster speed. You are looking forward to either going public like Snap Chat or getting acquired like Jobberman.

Because of these gigantic goals you set before yourself, you are willing to do anything to ensure the success of your startup so much so you give yourself very little health care.

We will be looking at 3 things they rarely ever told you about starting a startup, whether your investors or partners. They might give you all the great advise on how to build your business, grow your team and networking while growing your down lines too but they almost never talked about these things in the open except when push comes to shove.

We want to see you live happily as you grow your startup and also become a better founder.

This post is a three part series.  And you will get one per week.

Take care of your health

The number one on our list has to do with your health. Have you ever attended any startup or entrepreneur event and they single out the issue of health? Nobody does. Or they rarely do.

Mental health is often missing from public health debates even though it's critical to wellbeing. - Diane Abbott

The sad truth is many entrepreneurs are experiencing mental issues that they dare not talk about in the open. If not, they will be tagged ‘unfit” by others; they probably don’t know how they will be perceived if they show that spot.

We have so many of them, whether in Africa or far end Australia. They grind it all away. They forget their health.

It's never too late to take your heart health seriously and make it a priority. - Jennie Garth

In 2016, one of Nigeria promising startup founder, Sheriff Shittu – founder of showroom.ng, shut down his business and it is not because he didn’t work hard. He wrote about it on medium.

He had this to say;

“On a personal level, my journey so far as been onerous. It’s either tech or nothing. I don’t have any community I belong to other than tech. I just felt every other thing is time wasting. If not for my wife that drags me to church every now and then, I’d be okay just watching online. When the time became really tough, maybe church community could have been of great help had I been fully integrated like I was 8yrs ago.”

The founder of accelerator 500Startups Dave McClure, completely understands startup stress:

“Oh Jesus, founding a company can suck. It was a hell of a lot of work for not a hell of a lot of return. And then there are days when you sit in a corner and cry. You can’t really do anything else. Your world revolves around your startup and it’s all about trying to survive and not look like an idiot in front of employees.”

This post isn’t meant to put you in a fearful or ‘caution’ position but it is very important that you are aware of what you are going to face as a startup and an entrepreneur. And you might already being in it and your startup has got every inch of you, this post is to make you pause for a minute and ask yourself “If you have been fair to your health”. It is like using a blackberry phone or IPhone for the first time, nobody can really explain the experience to you unless you have experienced it yourself.

You may never fully grasp the full benefit of having good health routine until you purposefully and deliberately enforce a good health program yourself.

The tragic suicide of Ilya Zhitomirskiy, the 22-year old co founder of Diaspora, a non-profit, user-owned, distributed social network (it recently petered out), and Dan Haubert, the 25-year old YC Alum and co-founder of TicketStumbler, provide clear examples of the devastating pressure that young entrepreneurs face. (source -venture beat)

There’s more to life than just your startup. You have your family for instance because if your startup is in a mess or failed, they will never go away. But how would you feel, if the only time your friend comes around is when he is in a mess? – Let that sink in a bit.

You should decide for yourself. As you plan your startup growth, you should also put necessary plans in place for your health. And one lie you always tell yourself is ‘sleep is a thief of time’. No! Sleep as much as you can especially at night.

Nobody will tell you to take good care of your health unless they are super close and cool with you. You always kid yourself you don’t want to let your investors and team know that you need a break before it is almost too late that it can no longer be hidden. Because, for the investor – you have to be credible. And to your team – you want to remain motivating. Like you are a god.

It is utter madness if you go through your startup phase alone, sick and dejected. You need people and you need your health.  

So many startup founders have committed suicide; they kill themselves because -“mental stress”.

Take care of your health and get enough of fun. Whatever fun means to you.

You can read more of startup failures and death here. And here.

It is a good thing that more ‘meet ups’ where startup founders and entrepreneurs share their pains are being organized around the world. Like the What Went Wrong and Fuck Up Night event around the world. Check them out.

We are not just talking about a chit-chat gathering where the beautiful things of UI/UX are being discussed or what makes a presentation strong or how to attract investors. We are talking about a place where you can pour out the pains in your heart and you are not afraid that one of your investor is going to hear and nail you to the cross.   

When you go through articles or white papers written about ‘why startups fail’, they start with no market need, no cash etc. and if they ever mention anything about ‘health’, it will be last on the list.

You can download a report compiled by CB Insight here – The Top 20 reasons why Startups Fail.

Like earlier said, this post is not meant to discourage you but to bring it to ‘the fore front of your awareness’. You may know about taking care of your health or probably have heard of it somewhere and just put it at the back of your mind because you are voltron. You should actually bring it to the front of your view and make it a regular in your schedule to live healthily.

Don’t ignore your health. Read why you should take care of your health as a startup at the Startup Grind Blog and see some of our points below on how you should do it.

-       You should eat fine. Not eat on the go like you’ve lost control of your time

-       Have enough sleep.

-       Take out the pressure.  

-       See a doctor regularly.

-       When you are not working; ensure you are not working.

-       Do what makes you happy.

And yes, it is not as easy as it is stated out. It is a reality that if you don’t grow fast enough, you will get crushed by the others. It is also true that potential investors must know that you are very serious in growing your startup.

But! How do you plan to get all these done if your health fails.

Go build something strong. Go build a better startup. Take extra-good care of your health.

We welcome your thought in the comment box.