That’s what we’re told most people should be in order to be successful.
The media is filled with images of successful entrepreneurs who have had many fortunate events in their lives to lead them to where they are. They all seem to share these two traits: smart, and hard working.
We’re told that if you are smart & hard-working, you’re able to achieve your dreams. These traits are great, but their useless without one another fundamental trait, that all successful entrepreneurs hold: vulnerability. (I cringed a bit, and wanted to look away when I wrote that — because I don’t want it to be the case). Most of us turn away from vulnerability, who wants to open the door to failure, heartbreak, and regret? Entrepreneurs do. And often, they do so unwillingly.
It takes a tremendous amount of courage to get back up from after a fall, and to admit to yourself when things aren’t going as planned. It’s this skill thats scarce, not jumping in and taking a risk. It’s hard to look at a product you spent $400,000 and 3 years on and say — this sucks. It’s hard to see the world move to a new platform while you remain an expert on a platform that’s rapidly dying. It’s hard to admit that you’re once hot startup, isn’t that hot anymore. It’s difficult to bury the past, and move on to an uncertain future that may possibly bring even more failure, and leave harder emotions to deal with in its wake. But guess what — you don’t have a choice.
It takes a tremendous amount of courage to get back up from after a fall, and to admit to yourself when things aren’t going as planned. It’s this skill thats scarce, not jumping in and taking a risk in the first place.
If you’ve chosen courage, there’s no replacing it with other useless stuff. You can numb with Youtube videos, food, going out, smoking, social media, sex — and a lot more. But you’re not running away from anything, you’re simply robbing the precious time you have left on this earth to set out and do what you’re here to do.
Vulnerability demands authenticity. It demands us to do what we truly want to create from our heart. By the time youre done coding your app, or making that piece of art, or fixing that leak, it needs to have been done from the heart. You need that look on your face that we all seemed to have so naturally when we were kids and we just finished a task. You know what I’m talking about— that look. This one:
The look that says “hey, look what I did!” without the ego and arrogance. Without looking around and comparing. Without needing your creation to be anything better. And yes.. Without your creation having to turn into a massive billion dollar unicorn in order for you to feel proud of what you did. If you get one customer: great work. You did exceptionally well. Because the truth of vulnerability is this: It doesn’t matter what the result is.
It’s a sense of pride in what you’re working on — without feeling that it isn’t enough, or losing nights worrying about how someone else, or some other company is getting ahead of you. Without this kind of authenticity, there is no determination. And as Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs or any entrepreneur that has so called “made it” in the eyes of society would say — determination and perseverance is key to getting anywhere.
What most entrepreneurs don’t realize is this: You can’t get to determination when comparison is running amok in your head.
But that’s not what we’re told. We’re told to be smart and hard working. Though that’s true, if smart and hard working were enough, we would definitely be having a lot more successful entrepreneurs, and the market wouldnt seem to be so complex and strange in the eyes of young creators.
Smart and hard-working without vulnerability does not equal success, it equals:
Comparison.
Not enough. (Money, time, or [ fill in the blank ])
The need to do whatever it takes to raise a seed round. (or whatever the next round is).
A joyless journey in entrepreneurship.
Perfectionism
Life paralysis
And much more…
The message I’d like to leave you with today is this: Whatever you’re doing, if it does not involve deep emotional risk, deep authenticity (or doing what you are genuinely interested in), and if it doesn’t keep you present, then you’re missing this last piece. Be willing to put your work out in to the world and share what you’ve created from your heart. This is the only true path to successful entrepreneurship.
And yes…. When you eventually share it with the world, I’ll be watching. I’ll look to see if you have…. that look.
