Unhappy in Paradise: Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side
So it’s the end of March and I found myself hanging out in beautiful Maui with my family. The sun is shining, the ocean is a spectacular blue, fringed with stark lush greenery. The weather is perfectly tropical. Food is amazing and everyone is happy here. Life should be good.
Yet it’s 2023, a few weeks after the Silicon Valley Banking crisis, I’m stressed, tired and distracted. Since then, I’ve literally been on calls with my now fairly extensive portfolio of startups. And it’s all bad news. No one calls to talk to you about good news. Founders having cofounder problems, runway or fundraising problems. Or what I experienced in just one week: 4 companies calling me to tell me they are shutting down.
But it’s the game and I accept it. When times are good, enjoy it. But when times are tough, like they are now, it’s your duty and honor to be there for your founders. Otherwise, don’t be an investor.
Fundraising has dried up, VCs and LPs are scared as we enter a risk-off environment where money is now expensive or scarce. Layoffs abound across Silicon Valley and will only accelerate through this year. Mentally you are stressed and struggling.
Yet in contrast, there seem to be so many people around you, especially in my circles that seem to be crushing it. Raising massive sized VC funds, selling their companies, building massively profitable businesses. It’s hard not to feel like a loser, especially when fundraising from LPs has gotten challenging, a bunch of your investee companies are shutting down. You feel stuck and wonder what you are doing wrong. Or even more pernicious, what is wrong with you personally?
But if you want to accomplish anything, you can’t think this way. We don’t know the travails and challenges that others have faced getting there. We still have no idea of the challenges in their life right now. You only see the good stuff. This doesn’t mean take it easy on yourself, let alone excusing yourself.
You have to step away from social media, shake off your doubts and be grateful for what you have. Then dig in deep, refocus and get back to work. You have a responsibility to yourself and your family to keep going hard. And be prepared to do this for a long time. If you do this, you will be fine. Having been in a bunch of cycles myself over the last 2.5 decades I know how these things go. This is a big test of life. Don’t get too down and definitely don’t quit.
Atlas (@DentesLeo) on Twitter says it right:
“I never see the winners complaining about the state of the world, inflation, the crisis or circumstances external to them.
Complaining is a loser's business.
Winners keep playing.”
We can all learn alot from Jeff Bezos here. This is encapsulated in a great tweetstorm by William Green:
“Jeff Bezos on the power of a long time horizon: "If everything you do needs to work on a 3-year time horizon, then you're competing against a lot of people. But if you're willing to invest on a 7-year time horizon, you're now competing against a fraction of those people…”
"Just by lengthening the time horizon, you can engage in endeavors that you could never otherwise pursue. At Amazon we like things to work in 5 to 7 years. We're willing to plant seeds [&] let them grow....we're stubborn on vision & flexible on details."
(Source: https://twitter.com/WilliamGreen72/status/1641185082361757697)
Taking the long term view is key. So get back to work!