Hi @Akhilesh - thanks for your question!
This is one of those topics that has meant a lot to me for a long time. Part of this is covered in my answer to James’ question here but it’s worth digging into some of the specifics.
- As founders our job is to manifest something that exists only as an idea, into something real
- This is no mean feat and can be incredibly challenging
- Part of this is necessarily convincing yourself that it is possible…
- That requires inspiration, research and just a sprinkle of delusional thinking
- The problem comes when we do this without sensitivity and project it outward
- In particular, when we layer in lies of omission (crowing about the good stuff but leaving out the stuff that makes us feel like crap)
- This is damaging to ourselves and our business when it’s an internal dialogue
- But has collateral damage on other founders who hear that one-sided story from their peers and are left feeling like they’re the only ones suffering
- That’s why communities like this, be they virtual or face-to-face, that allow founders to drop the filter and talk about some of the pain are really important
- One simple thing that we can all do when asked about how we’re doing by another founder is to present a balanced view
- Instead of saying:
We’re doing great! Just launched a new feature and closed a Series A with investors x.”
you could try
We just closed a large series A which I’m delighted about. But I’m struggling with how I’m going to meet the expectations of our team and investors”
or
We landed marquee client y but lost a couple of valuable customers that has caused me some concern
- I’ve found this opens up conversations, is a great way of building mutual trust which can even lead you to a discussion that can help with those pressing concerns (there are always pressing concerns)
- If you’re interested, I wrote about his in more detail here