Startup life is like making a movie

A mentor of mine once said to me, "Your life is like a movie, enjoy the making of it."

I think this piece of advice should be applied to every startup entrepreneur. When watching actors being interviewed for an upcoming film release, often times, they speak about how great it was to make the film with their co-stars and experiencing the process of making the film. There seems to be more focus on the actual making of the movie as opposed to the finish product. One actor who takes this to the extreme comes to mind, Johnny Depp, who apparently doesn't even watch his own films.



As a startup entrepreneur, the end game outcome is sometimes what we tend to focus on a little too much, as opposed to embracing the process of getting to the finish line. When I read about startups who have been successfully acquired, there seems to be a common thread. Someone in the management team or one of the investors will mention that while this outcome is terrific, they will undoubtedly miss working with each other on a daily basis and experiencing all of the fun times they had while getting to this stage.

Here's a recent example:

A blog post by Josh Kopelman at First Round Capital regarding the Intuit acquisition of Mint.com:

"While I’m sure that Mint would have continued to grow and prosper as an independent company, the opportunity to accelerate Mint’s growth as part of the Intuit platform was extremely attractive. This is a great outcome for Aaron and his team we are thrilled for them. The champagne will be flowing as freely at First Round Capital as it will in the future former Mint headquarters. The only downside is that after three years I will miss working with Aaron as he continues to delight his customers. It has been a great ride and I have learned a tremendous amount playing a supporting role as Aaron built this company. My loss, however, is Intuit’s gain and I am happy for them as they work with Aaron and his team to take Mint.com to the next level."

See the full blog post here.

My business partner mentioned to me the other day that we don't celebrate our small wins enough. I have to agree. I think this is one of the ways you can enjoy the process of building a startup.

What do you think? Do you find that you focus on the end game too much? What do you do to embrace the process of getting to your goal?

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

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