When you’re too small and not recognised by the market, you have some time to share your observations and lessons but nobody is interested in them. When you’re bigger and have found your product-market fit, you don’t have that time to spare. When you’re trying to recall how it was when you were just starting out – your brain tricks you and you have probably forgotten how hard it was and how it ‘really’ felt. You don’t remember how many times you were questioning your abilities, when you were catching yourself unconsciously comparing to others who seem to have figured “it” out. It takes a lot of energy to build the product/offering, but even greater – to blow out all the dark thought clouds that come in your way, often ready to cause a storm.
It’s easier to speak up about your struggles when you’re passed them.
There is this gap of lack of real insight – from before starting the business to “making it” (whatever that means for an individual founder), creating an unhealthy vision that “overnight success” is not that hard. It is. really. hard and puts a lot of strain on your mental health.
