Playing a long game: It’s a belief that building a Tech startup is always hard. It’s true. And, it’s an eliminating belief too. Life works in duality. On the other hand, it’s easy if we take our time to build something without grinding and hustling mentality. Working long hours isn’t the solution. Founders and team who understand the philosophy of ‘slowing down’ succeed in the long game because they have high degree of emotional and mental endurance over the long haul.
Courage and Confidence: Working on a Tech startup is damn hard. Isn’t starting something new is hard? It’s hard! The confidence level is low and we require courage to keep showing up. I started podcast in 2020 knowing nothing — it was hard, and now I’ve 200+ episodes and it’s less hard.
On creativity: People force themselves for creative solutions when they feel tired and hence push more and more, and eventually nothing happens. Why not take a break and replenish yourself to fill your energy tank?
Founders with diverse experience: You can build a company at any age. Startup founders with diverse prior experience in different industries, even as an employee, who have built different kinds of designs and products are more likely to succeed in their startup venture. They already have gained many skills along their career such as how to build teams, how to leverage existing network, etc etc.
Founder’s focus on Emotional/Mental Health: Startups may fail due to many reasons — not have enough funding, co-founders conflict, not having a strong early stage team to execute the initial pain. What startups don’t usually talk about is “Emotional and Mental health”. Driving innovation and creativity is impossible when founders are burned out. It’s not about working long hours, it’s about allocating your mental and emotional bandwidth in the effective resources.
Without emotional and mental health adoption in companies, it’s going to be more challenging. So, breathe and meditate.
Some things are hard, really really. Starting a company is hard. On the other hand, It can be easy if we ask ourselves the right kind of questions in the early-stage without proving our worth or external validation.
On building connection: “What do you do?” Such a dirty question to ask someone new in a networking setting. People tend to remember the most when they connect emotionally and when they feel ignited. At SXSW, I met a lot of people and I don’t remember what exactly they do, but I do remember about the people with whom I had great conversations and connected at a deeper human level than the superficiality of collecting LinkedIn requests or business cards.
People will remember you based on how you make them “feel” – emphasis on feel.
My response is always weird to question “what do you do?”. I usually respond with “it depends on day and time”. I prefer asking – what excites you these days? what’s your heart calling these days? and just wait and watch.
The Nishant Garg Show:
This show and blog is about helping Entrepreneurs, Tech Founders, Startup Enthusiasts develop Emotional and Mental health and be more human in their work and personal lives. I interview entrepreneurs, authors, mental health professionals, leadership executive coaches, psychologists, and many more For any questions, please contact me. If you have enjoyed listening to my podcasts, please subscribe to the new podcast updates on Itunes please provide your reviews on Itunes which will really help me.
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