For those of you who know me, you know I have always had a mild obsession with space and now SpaceX. The excitement employees had in the command room watching the first Falcon 9 land is truly must watch TV. This poor dude in the corner trying to do his job while the entire place is going bananas always give me a chuckle.
Watching the OneWeb mission last night on Twitter I could not help but think Elon was doing the same thing. Except he was watching one of his start-ups deliver payload to space (SpaceX) while being streamed through his other start-up (Twitter).
Like any other normal person, I was then distracted from the entertainment and thrust into an internal war about sacrifice.
Success is subjective, but for the sake of this conversation let us consider you are attempting to build something new from scratch. You have family, friends, fun, fitness, and work. There will be a direct correlation between the amount of time you sacrifice with one of the F’s and your ability to have success in the venture you seek. If you get smart quick, you can combine some of the F’s at certain times but it is not easy and can get tricky. You cannot have a family and friends all coming together to surf or golf every weekend. You should try though!
My point is the F’s will be sacrificed to a degree in order to achieve outsized success. In my opinion, the only way passed is through. You have complete control and autonomy over which F’s get tailored down.
The priority I have noticed the most in founders is:
Family
Work
Friends
Fun
Fitness
My point here is many times work will find its way to the pole position. When this happens, and it will happen, and if you have a speck of EQ, you can feel it. These moments are completely flow state and may last a couple hours or months at a time.
You need to be prepared for these. Quality family and friends will understand your drive. They know the path you are on. It is your responsibility to communicate thoroughly going into those moments. Do not make people try and read your mind based on your fast-paced walking, lesser eye contact, and brief answers. If you know sh*t is about to get real, let the people closest to you know.
This is where the conversation about age and family dynamics come into play. On average the younger you are the less likely it is you have children. A lot of people in their 20s are now traveling more and potentially living in an entirely different state or country than their parents.
If this is the case you can lop the #1 priority pretty much off the top of your commitments. This falls directly into the advice many give about starting something when you are young. I agree with the caveat that your 20s is the perfect age to start something that fails. There is a blog post for a later time and place about this.
My advice today is to try and take inventory once in a while on your time and if you know the next couple weeks will be harder, communicate it with your circle. It will go a long way.