The emotional rollercoaster of building anything great

This is cross-posted from the original article published on Forbes.

A founder’s journey is often lonely and underappreciated. We hear about the successes and stories of the top executives and founders who got their start by dropping out of college, establishing their first company and turning it into a smashing success. We have been taught to be inspired by them and emulate their work ethic to become our own successes.

But these stories are often one in a million and far from the average. There are no shortcuts to building something great. Behind all that “overnight success” is a tale of trials and tribulations, deep-seated insecurities, fear of failure, steely resilience and a ton of luck that got them to where they are.

Surrounding Yourself With The Right People

With over a decade of experience on this startup founder roller coaster, I have been forced to develop pattern recognition to help process the ups and downs, learn to regulate my emotions and surround myself with the right people to help push through the obstacles. I can’t stand here and say that I’ve built something that has changed the world (though that is the goal), but I can say with confidence that by now, no problem is insurmountable or too complex to solve.

Above all else on this journey, it’s important to surround yourself with people who inspire you. One of the many mentors I’ve had along this journey—Michael Cline, founder of Fandango and Accretive and former vice chairman of Bridgewater—taught me so much of what I know today around aligning incentives for all customer segments, creating value for customers that must be better than their next best alternative, and that extraordinary execution is what makes all the difference.

He shared with me one of his core principles that has resonated with me to this day—despite the odds of success, we should still strive to build something great. Yet the journey is equal parts emotional and physical. It takes time, and it takes the right people motivated by the right factors to achieve great things.

These learnings are captured in a presentation I helped him work on back in 2016, and a notable slide is visualized below.

Working Through The Challenges

The entrepreneurial journey starts with rose-colored glasses; the idea is great, building a team is exciting and everyone is motivated by the same mission. As the team expands from 5 to 15, you’re experiencing the highs of building a startup from scratch and having fun along the way. The world is your oyster and you can pivot, tweak and fine-tune all the levers as you please.

Then it hits. Something goes awry (because something always does), and before you know it, you have strayed far from the goal: product-market fit is taking longer than expected, customers are signing up and churning, it’s becoming harder to keep the team motivated and politics and personalities take hold as the team gets bigger.

Everything that made the beginning such a fun and rewarding experience is gone, with all the day-to-day problems now consuming your energy and the company internally feels like it’s oscillating between organized chaos and a dumpster fire. Amidst all this, you are expected to outwardly project that everything is going well for the sake of the customers, working to keep the growth trajectory going to hit KPIs.

These are the crucible moments that test founders’ mettle. In times like this, you have to be building something you are so passionate about that you wake up every morning and go to sleep thinking about it. Because if not, you will not have the motivation to stick it through. Why would you, when you see all your peers living their lives and doing all the things they enjoy? This dark swamp of despair can get very isolating. You begin to second guess every decision you make when all the things that were working before that you attributed to your own skill are not working anymore.

As the founder, you still need to keep your chin up for the team and not let these negative thoughts overwhelm you. To carry you through, those closest to you, whether it is friends or your family, will be the ones to support you. These are battles and emotions you should not have to go through by yourself and you will come out all the better for it.

Keeping Your Sights On The Reward

Startups are a combination of perseverance and luck as you work your way through this marathon. With enough time, you survive long enough to witness a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel. Do not let this light fool you as it is an illusion that feeds into your desire to call it quits after having been through enough. This is when you push because it does get easier here. You begin to realize how much you learned and adapted along the journey to help you tackle the next set of challenges. When you have seen the many challenges, you understand that they aren’t as difficult to tackle the second time around. Keep your sights on the reward waiting for you on the other side because it is a reward unlike anything you’ve experienced before.

Some of us embark on this journey because we are motivated by fame or money. If that’s what you’re looking for, there are easier ways to get famous and far easier ways to make money. Most who end up working in a corporate job will make more money throughout their career than any entrepreneur ever will, as the odds are often stacked against you.

So why do it?

Because of the thrill of building something great, something that could change the world, something to look back on and say you are proud of what you’ve accomplished. When things are looking down and you’re trapped in the dark swamp of despair, it is belief and persistence that comes from doing emotionally fulfilling things that will carry you through. Never stop committing your life to building something great.