An open letter from Greg Coussa, strategic director of the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST), a leading pan-African tech hub and training programme.
Friends,
For more than a decade most of my professional obsession has been on helping impactful ventures get to scale. Scale was the goal. Because scale meant… scale. It meant more. And oh baby, what’s better than more? More is.
The addiction to “more”
More CO2 emissions reduced. More farmers having access to life-changing software and hardware. More young people entering the workforce with the digital skills they need to compete. More unhoused people, housed. More uneducated kids in unreached areas, educated. More young women starting businesses that pull their families and communities out of extreme poverty. More money (made, raised, spent). More awareness of the problem. More awareness of the country. More social media followers. More awareness of you, the entrepreneur…
Oh. This spotlight is kind of warm.
You want me to come where? Harvard? Stanford? Oxford? To speak about what I’ve dedicated my life to?! Epic!
Yeah, I’m a fellow of (insert credible academic institution, government body, funder, multilateral, etc). It’s cool.
Whoa. I have over a 100 people working for me now! Wait. It’s actually 1,000!! Wow. Power is cool. I mean impact is.
These investors are awesome.
I can’t believe these funders flew this far to visit the field with me.
My board is made up of seriously impressive people.
I’ll sleep when I’m dead.
I don’t mind giving up most of my company’s ownership if it means millions of dollars to scale this thing to the moon!
I haven’t seen my kids that much this year, but I’m on a mission. There’s always tomorrow.
It feels like Groundhog Day with these quarterly and annual reports. Does anyone even read these?
If I get asked to be a guest lecturer one more time I’m going to throw my laptop at a tree.
My investors are breathing down my neck because we had a down year. Why are they so quick to forget 10 years of constant growth? I didn’t start COVID-19 or these wars. I just have to deal with it.
Sometimes I wish I was doing something else. Anything else. I feel trapped.
I keep telling people I’m living the dream but it’s starting to feel more like a nightmare.
My board doesn’t get me. My team doesn’t get me. My family doesn’t get me. I don’t get me sometimes…
When “more” isn’t enough
What if the most important thing to scale your venture is… for you to exit? For the company, but more importantly, for your soul.
According to research by Startup Snapshot, 72 per cent of founders reported that the startup grind has a detrimental impact on their mental health and 81 per cent of founders are not really open about their stress, fears, and challenges.
But the good news is that the more money entrepreneurs raised, the more sleep they got. What? Ooooh. It’s the opposite? Oops. According to the same research, 51 per cent of entrepreneurs who raised less than US$5 million reported decreased sleep, whereas 83 per cent of entrepreneurs who raised US$30-70 million reported decreased sleep. Yikes. Given the importance of, and correlation between, sleep and longevity, you might be “permanently asleep” sooner than you think if the stress doesn’t ease up.
But you know this. It isn’t just something you experience. In a perverse twist, you celebrate it with your friends. But what if this is like drinking and driving: we all know it’s bad for your health, and for the health of other people around. And just like drinking and driving, maybe we’re at the beginning of a new campaign in this beautiful and complex entrepreneur ecosystem. Where moderation is the new target. The new behaviour change we’re aiming for. And if you can’t be moderate, hand the keys over to someone else to drive.
You brush off the high blood pressure.
You bury the remains of unresolved hurt from broken relationships.
You achieve success your past self could only dream of, but you realise that the top of the mountain is lonely, scary, and confusing. The view is beautiful, but save for a quick selfie to perpetuate the lie to others that you’re doing great, you’re a bit too busy to take that gorgeous view in.
Here’s the thing. You can’t hack your health. All of your health. Physical. Mental. Relational. Spiritual. Your true you – body, mind, soul – keeps score. Whether you want to play or not, desire has nothing to do with it, you’re playing. But if you keep operating at a deficit thinking you’ll make it all up in the fourth quarter, you’re running up a tab that can be hard, if not impossible, to repay later.
In your search for more my friends – and generally, that search is an admirable and pure one – you have ended up with less. Less sleep. Less exercising. Less friends. Less inner peace.
Here’s my question: is it worth it? Initially, yes! You guys change the world, over and over and over again. But at what point, should you “call it?”
You are not what you do. Work is an expression of who you are. I think a lot of us are forgetting that.
The tough options
I originally wanted to write to you guys about how to untrap yourselves. But you know this stuff. There’s generally three options (and a fourth “you’re crazy and a bit irresponsible” one).
Here’s the four options you likely know more about than I do:
- Option 1: Merge with a complimentary (or competitive) company and demote yourself!
- Option 2: Sell the company!
- Option 3: Find someone better to lead the company!
- Option 4: Quit.
All four options have a certain painful journey an entrepreneur must go through. It reads like the end of a prescription drug ad you see on TV (in America).
Side effects may include: Early onset identity crisis. Weird humbling sensation, especially at night. Unresolved restlessness. Existential confusion and worry. Lack of direction for how to spend 70 hours a week. Clarity about which humans actually care about who you actually are. The desire to start something, anything, immediately (Don’t!). Allergic reactions to funders and investors.
It will be ok. I promise. You’re not the saviour of the world.
If you go through the above and step down from running your company, you will likely have less. Less money (well, maybe not). Less power. Less followers. Less attention. Less sense of (false) self worth. But how does that one saying go? Less is more. Well, most likely, you having less, will lead to less and more.
- Less stress
- More sleep
- Less anxiety
- More time
- More headspace (don’t fill it with social media! Go outside with no connection to the digital world on you (e.g. phone, watch etc.)! Read a book! The ones with paper on the inside.)
Paying it forward
What to do with the above? I don’t know… that’s up to you, but I do hope you’ll help make this whole entrepreneurship ecosystem more sustainable, honest, and kinder to the young folks coming up behind you.
To that extent, a few items I’d love your help on for those younger, aspiring entrepreneurs who are thinking that being an entrepreneur is all flowers, butterflies, impact, and money.
- If you don’t like being stressed, sleeping less, and feeling anxious, please don’t celebrate your startup stress, all nighters, and “always on” mentality. Share the hard lessons you’ve learned and guide those behind you to protect the relationships and life giving activities that bring them joy.
- If you don’t like pawning yourself out to investors and funders every few years, please don’t over glamourise fundraising. Not. Every. Entrepreneur. Has. To. Raise. Money.
- If you didn’t like faking it until you made it, encourage the entrepreneurs you come across who do have to raise money, to find true investment partners. The ones who will invest not just capital, but empathy and patience.
- If you don’t like being alone, encourage young entrepreneurs to surround themselves with the support you didn’t have, or the kind that worked out well for you.
You entrepreneurs have changed the world in every single regard. Every industry. Every economy. Every generation. Through left and right leaning governments. Through depressions, recessions, and booms.
You are the generals and the foot-soldiers of the economy. The backbone of society. You change the narrative of our lives by reaching out into nothingness and bringing back amazing.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if you helped the future you(s) bring forth amazing in a more amazing way?
All my love,
Greg
