Founder’s High

Running a startup is hard because there are thousands of things you could be working on at any moment.

One minute you are coding, then a customer messages you, then there is a hiring problem, then something breaks. The constant focus switching is killing. You spend the whole day working but never get deep enough into anything.

The hard part is not solving problems. It is figuring out which problem is actually the most important one. You can work insanely hard and still make zero progress because you picked the wrong fire.

But sometimes the biggest fire is also the exact problem you are best at solving and genuinely love doing.

When that happens, I get completely locked the fuck in.

The office can be shitty. No coffee, no food, people talking around me. I literally don’t notice any of it because I can see the finish line and it suddenly feels so close.

There is no focus switching anymore. Every decision makes the next one more obvious. I don’t have to force myself to keep working. I can sit there for hours and realize I have been smiling the entire time.

Runners call it runner’s high. I call it founder’s high.

It happens when the most important thing you could be doing is also the thing you are insanely good at and cannot stop thinking about.

Han says to remember not to smile.

When you find this mode, it is impossible not to.