Yesterday was one of those days when startup life feels like you’re standing at the bottom of a mountain, looking up, up, up and wondering how on earth you’re going to get there before it gets dark.
Many moons ago, my oldest friend and I hiked Mt Rinjani on Lombok together with six Swedish guys that we’d gotten to know. We did it without porters or a guide, stubborn as we were, and it proved a little more demanding than what the friendly Indonesians down in the village had led us to believe.
On the second day during our hike up from the crater, we didn’t reach the rim before dark and had no choice but to stop and find a somewhat flat area large enough for putting up our tents. It’d been raining for the last few hours and as we climbed up the steep, rocky and slippery crater side, I cursed more than I think I’ve ever done before. It was a physically and mentally demanding climb. We were cold, wet and hungry and with every step there was a risk that we’d slip and fall down the crater side.
That night as the temperature plummeted further, my friend and I spooned and shared my sleeping bag as it was the only one that was dry. When the sun rose the next morning we saw the rim and shortly there after we were stood at the top and looked out over the stunning landscape around us.
There is a great quote by Ping Fu that goes:
Life is a mountain range. From every peak the view is different. But you can’t get to another peak if you always want to go up. You have to be willing to go down or otherwise you get stuck on one peak and you only see one view.
Despite the mountain range of ups and downs that is startup life, there’s only been one time when I felt that I didn’t want to do this anymore. It was right before Christmas and on my commute home I wrote a draft post on my phone suitably titled “The first time I don’t want to do this anymore”. It past as soon as I’d written the post and reflected on what had to change this year.
I do enjoy the journey, even the hardship that is going up, but there are days when I get overwhelmed and wonder how on earth I’m going to pull this off in time. There’s a mountain of things to be done and to look into. Both tasks of the more tedious kind, but also really exciting things. As those of you who know me will attest to, I prefer things to happen yesterday and being bootstrapped puts limits to how quickly you can do things. Plus it means you have to do more yourself.
Yesterday I spent the afternoon planning and doing research. The fact that we have so many exciting things in the pipeline, but right now aren’t able to move quickly enough, it tested my patience and towards the end of the day it got me a bit down. I didn’t complete and publish my day to day post yesterday and I decided that that was ok. Nothing good comes out of forcing things that either don’t have to be forced, or shouldn’t be forced. Knowing what those things are and when it’s better to stop and take a break, just like on Mt. Rinjani, is crucial for ensuring you don’t burn out, but also for making the right decisions.
Image from the top of Mt Rinjani looking down the crater – by Flickr user Trekking Rinjani plus the second rim we never got to but instead slept on the left crater side.
