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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Follow me on Twitter || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

What does an undergraduate degree really mean?

The other day I was speaking with a friend's youngest brother, who is in high school and is evaluating whether or not to go to university. As I was explaining the reasons why I believe every young person should go to university, I remembered a statement one of my employers said to me when I was in pursuit of attaining my degree.

He said (and I paraphrase), the way an employer looks at your undergraduate degree is -- to see if you were able to commit yourself to a 4-year goal and achieve it at a high level of success.

Recent grads probably experience the fact that the degree that they worked so hard to get doesn't prove that they know anything really. It doesn't guarantee them a job, especially in this current environment. It merely increases the probability of landing one.

I later realized what employers look for when I entered the world of investment banking. The reason why investment banks look for students with a GPA of 4.0 is because, at that stage in life, it's the only signal to an employer that says, "If I, the employer, were to teach you something, based on your last 4-years, you are more than likely to learn it and apply it with little to no error." Putting aside specific course requirements that some jobs recommend (which I'm not discounting), this is what I believe employers are looking for as a result of completing an undergraduate degree.

What do you think?

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

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Follow me on Twitter || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Blog || http://andrecharoo.com