Startups: Helping Entrepreneurs Do The Things They Hate More Often
Everyone has things that they love doing as part of their work. Whether it’s talking to people, selling over the phone, composing spreadsheets or creating beautiful presentations everyone has their thing.
Conversely everyone has things that they loath which form part of their work. One of the most interesting things that I hear people say when they find out that I am an entrepreneur is that I must get to do all of the things that I love to do. That’s kind of true but not the whole picture. In fact it’s probably the first frame of the trailer that is the movie of what might one day be my life.
The truth is this:
Startups force entrepreneurs to do the things they hate the most for a prolonged period of time so that they can do the things they love intensely for a short period of time.
We do it this way in the hope that one day the business we build will grow to allow us to do the things we hate for increasingly smaller periods of time and the things we love for longer and longer periods of time.
The Things I Hate
For me, one of the things I hate is deep etching product shots. I absolutely hate the soul-destroying and repetitive nature of this work. I hate it almost as much as I hate washing the dishes after a meal (which must be the worst possible activity in a day).
The interesting by-product of startups forcing entrepreneurs to do the things they potentially hate is that the entrepreneur learns a host of very interesting and diverse skills whether they want them or not.
For me? You guessed it. I can deep etch product shots. I don’t want to deep etch product shots, but I can.
It’s Good To Do Things You Hate
Doing things that you aren’t fond of can help in a variety of ways.
Firstly, I understand almost every aspect of my business. This is important because if I expect someone else to do the work in place of me, I like to have an understanding of what that entails and how far I think they can push me and I can push them to do that job.
Secondly, I learn what bullshit looks like. If I’d never deep etched a single product and someone came in and told me that it would cost thousands of dollars to deep etch ten products I’d have no real reason (other than rational thought, of course) to doubt them. Now, because I have suffered and toiled away at this miniscule job, I know what it’s worth to me.
Lastly, doing things I hate has taught me how little I actually hate doing. I might think that I hate doing certain things, I might have a hunch that I don’t like doing other things, but when you run your own business you have to do it all for a long period of time before you can hire someone better than you to do the things you hate to do.
What The Employed Misunderstand
When I talk to people who are employed and receive a stable salary every month I’m always stunned at the level of complaining that takes place. They hate their boss, they hate their commute, they hate answer the phone, they hate talking to customers, they hate the product, they hate meetings, coffee, tea, milk, the toilets and basically anything else that they encounter is fair game to hate. But in truth, none of those are material. They are just things that in passing they dislike a little.
At the opposite end of the scale, I very rarely hear employed people gush about how much they love what they do, or even sometimes just like what they do. Sure, there are ups and downs all over the show, but on the whole most entrepreneurs I know are grateful for the experiences they have on a daily basis. Entrepreneurs do not mindlessly pass through days hoping that the next will go faster than the last. Entrepreneurs relish every second they have to work on their baby.
There probably isn’t a more appropriate analogy for building a business than raising a child. I’ve personally never raised a child but I know some people who have and from what I can see, they two things are pretty damn close.
For the first few years parents do all sorts of things that they hate: Clean up vomit and shit like it’s no big deal, lose a lot of sleep, suffer from intense highs and lows, very rarely know exactly what the baby needs or wants and when things go wrong it can take a long time and a lot of pain to recover.
Now lets analyse an entrepreneurs first few years in business: Clean up a lot of shit like it’s no big deal, lose a lot of sleep, suffer from intense highs and lows, very rarely know exactly what the business needs or wants and when things go wrong it can take a long time and a lot of pain to recover.
You get my point .
Building businesses is filled with a lot of shit and wading through it can often be overwhelming and feel never ending. But then just as you think you’re about to break your baby says its first words or takes its first step and all the pain you felt two years before disappears.
Sometimes doing things you hate is the only way to really understand and appreciate the things you love.
More often than not it’s impossible to do one without the other. That’s what it feels like to run a startup.