Idiot Who Founded DIGITALGUESTLIST.com | Rebel With A Cause | Hired Gun | Analytics Junkie | AntiHero | Serial Envelope Pusher | Optimist/Cynic
Paul DeJoe just wrote the kick-a$$ article, “What It’s Like To Be The CEO: Revelations and Reflections”, and pretty much the entire article applies to me. But these are the ones that hit home:
“Very tough to sleep most nights of the week. Weekends don’t mean anything to you anymore.”
“It’s very difficult to “turn it off”. But at the same time, television, movies and vacations become so boring to you when your company’s future might be sitting in your inbox or in the results of a new A/B test you decided to run. “
“You feel guilty when you’re doing something you like doing outside of the company. Only through years of wrestling with this internal fight do you recognize how the word “balance” is an art that is just as important as any other skill set you could ever hope to have. You begin to see how valuable creativity is and that you must think differently not only to win, but to see the biggest opportunities. You recognize you get your best ideas when you’re not staring at a screen. You see immediate returns on healthy distractions.”
“You always ask yourself if I am changing the World in a good way? Are people’s lives better for having known me?”
“You are creative and when you have an idea it has no filter before it becomes a reality. This feeling is why you can’t do anything else.”
“You start to see that the word “entrepreneur” is a personality. It’s difficult to talk to your friends that are not risking the same things you are because they are content with not pushing themselves or putting it all out there in the public with the likelihood of failure staring at them everyday. You start to turn a lot of your conversations with relatives into how they might exploit opportunities for profit. Those close to you will view your focus as something completely different because they don’t understand. You don’t blame them. They can’t understand if they haven’t done it themselves. It’s why you will gravitate towards other entrepreneurs. You will find reward in helping other entrepreneurs.”
“When you look around at a team that believes in the vision as much as you do and trusts you will do the right thing all the time, it’s a feeling that can’t be explained.”
“You will not settle for things anymore because you will see what is possible when you hold out for the best and push to find people that are the best. You don’t have a problem anymore being honest with people about not cutting it.”
“You have to be willing to sleep in your car and laugh about it.”
“You’ll learn not to get too low when things are bad and not to get too high when things are good and you’ll even give that advice. But you’ll never take it because being in the middle all the time isn’t exciting and an even keel is never worth missing out on something worth celebrating. You’ll become addicted to finding the hardest challenges because there’s a direct relationship between how difficult something is and the euphoria of a feeling when you do the impossible.”
“…that money might be the worse thing you could have as a personal goal. If you’re lucky enough to genuinely feel this way, it is a surreal feeling that is the closest thing to peace because you realize it’s the challenges and the work that you love. Your currencies are freedom, autonomy, responsibility and recognition. Those happen to be the same currencies of the people you want around you.”
*Side note: this is also a major reason why I’m single. It’s hard finding a fellow “save the world do gooder” that you want to spend the rest of your life with.
“You feel like a parent to your customers in that they will never realize how much you love them and it is they who validate you are not crazy. You want to hug every one of them. They mean the World to you…”
“You learn the most about yourself more than any other vocation as an entrepreneur. You learn what you do when you get punched in the face many many times. You learn what you do when no one is looking and when no one would find out. You learn that you are bad at many things, lucky if you’re good at a handful of things and the only thing you can ever be great at is being yourself which is why you can never compromise it. You learn how power and recognition can be addicting and see how it could corrupt so many.”
“You begin to realize that in life, the luckiest people in the World only get one shot at being a part of something great. Knowing this helps you make sense of your commitment.”
Unfortunately, and sometimes rightfully so, entrepreneurs are commonly misunderstood by people outside of our networks and by people we love. It’s mostly our fault. Although we are not understood most of the time, we take for granted that while we’re often misunderstood, we are always accepted and supported
“The things that are worth while to pursue and dedicate a life to involve something way bigger than individuals and have to be completely selfless or they are not big enough and not worth celebrating if the goal does not have the well being of others in mind…”
“…there is no better feeling than when you inspire or when you can help. When you genuinely help, it’s a good feeling that is impossible to suppress.”
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