Growing up, I’ve always had it easy.
Air-conditioned rooms, meals handled, laundry done for me. I’ve never really had to worry about the basics. I lived a very comfortable life.
But these past few months as a founder changed all of that.
You become the person left holding the bag when things go south. You deal with contractors whose incentives are not the same as yours. You deal with delays, incompetence, and people doing the bare minimum while you’re the one carrying the consequences.
The world is full of incompetence. Before you make it big, you have to filter through a lot of it.
You’ll get burned out. You’ll get disappointed. At some point it hits you: no one is coming to clean this up for you. If something is broken, it’s your problem. If someone is slow, it’s your problem. If you trusted the wrong person, it’s your problem.
But you keep going anyway.
You’ll learn that trust is earned, not given. You’ll learn to be sharper and filter harder. And when you find good talent, you’ll learn to keep them close and pay them well.
Because deep down, you know once you do make it, the game changes. Talent starts coming to you instead of you having to chase it. A lot gets easier.
Being a founder violently compresses growing up.
And slowly, you stop being the person who’s had it easy.