The Truth About Being a First-Time Founder
If you're running a business, there's no doubt that at some point somebody made a comment to you about needing to find a work-life balance...But the truth is, sometimes work-life balance isn’t an option.
After spending 3 years growing a business, i've noticed that a lot of the posts and articles about work-life balance seem to be coming from people who are on their 2nd or 3rd profitable business.
There’s nothing wrong with that, but we need to start accepting the fact that things are different if you’re a first-time founder.
I want to start off by saying that being a first-time founder is SUPPOSED to be hard.
Think about it, you’ve taken on all the risk, you quit your job, you might have convinced friends and family to join the cause, you also probably borrowed or raised some money and now every single day is a struggle to justify all that risk.
You have to grind through the mud just to bring in an extra dollar that usually doesn’t even go into your pocket, you have to stay up late planning ways to stay ahead of the competition, you have to fight with yourself everyday to wake up and push the business forward, and now you’re also fighting to stay motivated and protect what you’ve built.
The problem with people giving founders a hard time and criticizing work-life balance is that it's become a double standard.
When it comes to being a ball player who decided to go one-and-done after one year of collage, or an Olympian who has sacrificed all resemblance of a social life, an F1 drivers family who has committed every last dollar, or a Billboard artist who dropped out of school to spend more time in the studio, even a PhD student who’s in year 7 of a 10 year specialization or a NAVY SEAL who’s given up being a civilian, in those situations sacrificing everything to chase after your goal is considered admirable.
A lot of these people sacrificed their social lives, school, friends, family, and health to dedicate every second towards their craft, but when someone decides to make the same sacrifices in business we say “You really need to get a work-life balance, you're working too much...”.
Instead of looking down on the people who’ve decided to give up a work-life balance to grow their first business, I wanted to try and offer some practical advice that might help you manage the responsibilities of being a first-time founder.
1. Let your friends and family know
As a first-time founder, not everybody is going to understand why you do what you do.
I’ve seen a lot of people kid themselves into thinking that this is going to be an easy journey, and i’ve also seen how this can cause problems with friends and family.
Whether you want to hear it or not, the truth is that there's a good chance you’re going to become more distant. It's going become harder to answer the phone when friends and family call, and yes...If your business is on the verge of crashing, employees are leaving and money is running dry…You’ll likely miss birthdays and holidays.
These are all things that can hurt relationships, but just like anything else in life, if you can set the proper expectation in advance by letting your friends and family know, they're much more likely to understand and not take things personally.
Yes you're going to loose friends, yes people are going to think you're an asshole, but for the people that do understand, doing this one small thing will help build and foster a circle of support rather than resentment, and as the months turn into years and the pressure starts to build, having your closest people supporting you can be the make or break.
2. Commit to a timeframe
As a first-time founder it’s ok to not have a work-life balance, you’re not alone, but it’s also not something that you can do indefinitely.
Once you get started, once you've quit your job, once you've told your friends and family, you’ve pretty much passed “the point of no return”…And if you don’t look at it that way, you’re already setting yourself up for disappointment and unrealistic expectations.
But before getting into the zone, make sure to tell yourself how long you’re willing to do this. Whether it be consciously or unconsciously, by setting a timeframe you’ll increase the intensity in which you commit to your goal. It’s a lot easier to commit 3 years of not having a work-life balance if you know that win or loose, after 3 years you’re taking a break.
By setting a timeframe you’ll also be setting the right expectations for yourself…"The next few years are going to be a grind, I won’t be able to go out with my friends, I won’t be able to buy nice things, i’m going to expect hard times, i’m going to expect challenges, i’m going to expect to see everybody on social media posting about the great times they’re having while I go to bed at 9:00pm."
If you’re planning on winning on your first business, these are the sacrifices we all have to make, making them is a lot easier when you know how long you’re going to be making them for.
3. Wake up early
I never used to be a morning person, anybody who knew me in university knows that waking up before noon was considered a good day.
Now I know this isn't for everybody, but one of the most valuable habits i’ve picked up has been starting my days at 5:00am.
I read somewhere that “nobody wakes up early because they want to, they do it out of necessity” and this is probably one of the realest things i’ve heard when it comes to mornings.
Waking up early isn’t fun, but it’s one of the sacrifices that you’ll be making as a first-time founder. With the amount of things that you need to accomplish throughout the the day, getting a jump start on your morning can really help deal with all the emails, meetings, phone calls, reports, new initiatives, 1-on-1’s, planning, travel, and the never ending fires that come along with leading a business.
For me, the hardest thing about waking up early wasn’t actually the early mornings, it was going to bed early. Getting the benefits of waking up early go hand in hand with getting enough sleep, so having to be in bed by 10:30pm at the latest was an unfortunate part of the deal.
You’ll need every advantage you can get and there’s a certain energy boost that comes with knowing that you’ve woken up, worked out, had breakfast, and sent out your first round of emails before the competition has even gotten their head off the pillow.
4. Find energy in the small wins
One of the most important things to keep track of as a founder is your mental health.
The idea of work-life balance means having a healthy relationship between being “ON” and “OFF”. As a first-time founder, you’ll realize pretty soon that even when you try to be “OFF” you’re pretty much always “ON”.
Productivity, happiness and overall wellness come from your energy tanks being fully charged. But the reality is that once you pass the "point of no return" and the responsibilities of building a business start piling on, you'll soon realize that your tanks being on low is the new norm.
Most people are able to fill up their tanks by taking a vacation or spending time with friends and family, but seeing as these things start happening less frequently as a founder, it’s important to be self aware and start appreciating smaller wins in life that you may have been over looking.
Appreciating these small wins can be the one thing that prevents you from going through a total burnout. Instead of searching for something that will give you a massive recharge, If you can take a second and appreciate smaller daily wins you’ll incrementally increase your energy throughout the day.
It’s not as exciting as the feeling you get when you have a great night out making stories with your friends, or coming back from a two week vacation, but you’ll soon realize that these small wins are what keep you going and keep your tanks from depleting.
Small wins aren’t supposed to be few and far between, you should make “wins” out of things that can happen every day.
It can be as easy as clearing out your inbox, doing your morning meditation, eating healthy for the day, or showing up to all your meetings on time. Whatever your small wins are, it’s important that you take the time to identify them and use them as little boosts of energy and motivation throughout the day.
You’re doing hard things as a first-time founder, take a second to step back and appreciate what you’ve accomplished in a day, even if it’s just the small things.
In the ideal world, becoming the first-time founder of a business which lets you have a proper work-life balance is something everyone should strive for. Without going into the countless studies that prove the benefits of a healthy work-life balance on productivity, success and overall wellness, it’s just common sense that if you’re happy in your personal life, you’re more likely to be happier in your business life as well.
But the truth is that only very few people start a business for the first time and are successful without a massive level of sacrifice. I’m not saying that you NEED to give up having a work-life balance to be successful, and i’m not glorifying the “work 100 hours a week” entrepreneur lifestyle that has been circulating lately. I’m just speaking from experience on what I feel is the reality of being a first-time founder and what has worked for me. Hopefully some of these tips might help you on your journey.
