Founders: Run YOUR race 🏃‍♂️

Happy Kentucky Derby! 🏇Today’s newsletter is inspired by the greatest 2 minutes in sports, the Kentucky Derby, which just so happens to also be a running activity (albeit with a few more legs than I have). I hope you enjoy. If you missed my post about my tragic Derby experience, click here for another read this morning. As always, thanks for reading! - Brad

Sports analogies dominate business. 

“We need a Hail Mary.”

“We’re going to take our best shot.”

“It’s time to block and tackle.”

No analogy better aligns for entrepreneurs than “it’s a marathon not a sprint.”

Everyone says this to founders. Heck, I said it very recently.

It’s true for a lot of reasons, many of which I talked about in that October newsletter. But there’s a less talked about similarity that matters, especially for Silicon Holler founders.

Running is a sport where you’re competing against yourself.

And no one else’s performance matters.

Sure, there is always a winner of any marathon “race” but 99.9% of the people are running with no expectations of being first or even top 100. They’re doing it for their own reasons:

• They wanted to improve their health so they committed to the goal

• They just wanted to see if they could do it

• They love the challenge of doing something that 0.01% of people on this planet do every year

I know people who say “business is game” or “business is a sport.” I don’t really agree, unless we want to say that sport is running.

The problem?

Sports have winners and losers.

(OK, unless it’s soccer). 

Business? It’s not that simple.

The human mind is nearly too masterful at simplifying complex subjects so we can make quick work of concepts. It’s why fake news and conspiracy memes go viral. Someone posts a meme that oversimplifies a complex political topic, people see it and are able to quickly come to a conclusion, so they share it or engage. It’s called the “simplicity principle” in psychology (not to be confused with “Occam’s razor”). 

The simplicity principle is what makes a founder with a big exit seem like a success. 

“She knew something everyone else missed.”

It’s what makes a founder whose business collapsed a failure. 

“He wasn’t good enough. He failed.”

It’s win or lose. 

That works well for clickbait headlines, but I’ve always struggled to accept that success and failure are so black and white. I know founders who have run into hard times, and had to fight to liquidate their IP just to return capital to their investors. I don’t see them as a failure—in fact I really admire some of them and how they handled the adversity.

I also know several people who have scaled massive companies, raised pantsloads of capital and/or had mega exits. Some of them are truly “successful” and I admire them. Some lucked into connections, situations and opportunities that pulled them along in a tailwind of successes and cash. Some of these folks are morally bankrupt individuals, and I’d pay $1,000 an hour to not have to spend time with them. 

It might sound soft compared to the #hustle bro advice, but business is not just a competition with others. Yes, you have competition, and their direct losses may be a zero sum game for you. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about a founders’ constant comparison to all other founders. For some reason, founders compare themselves to every other founder, even ones who aren’t in our industry.

This is the hardest thing about being a Silicon Holler founder. The national tech news is about successful raises and exits of others—usually from the coast—and you naturally compare yourself to it. But here’s the truth—in no world are those other peoples’ wins and losses yours. 

Let’s say it again, but with more flare.

Someone else’s win does not mean you lost. 

Just like how in running, it doesn’t matter who wins the race. You were probably never going to be the fastest. You won’t be the slowest either. What matters is that you trained for it, and you went for it, and how you carried yourself through the challenges that came up along the way.

My race, my way

When you’re building a company in Silicon Holler, stay grounded and make sure you’re not comparing yourself too much to the coasts. Yes, people raise more capital in Silicon Valley. But they also don’t have what you have, which is a long list of why you’ve decided to stay where you are.

I know I have my reasons for doing this in Kentucky, and it includes your usual run of logical answers—family, friends, and this is home.

Some have pointed out I’m not putting myself on a level playing field by doing it here, and doing it my way.

(Actually one guy said I am trying to grow a pineapple in Kentucky.)

But my point is that I’m not trying to be on the field at all. 

I am happy building my business here in Kentucky. I can do it while raising less money, and yeah, that may cost me some of the explosive growth you see with coastal companies. But overall, I’ve found a lot of joy in running my race, my way. 

In closing, I’m going to leave you with a quote that I used to say over and over to myself when I was marathon training and the miles would weigh on me. When my brain said to quit, I’d think about this quote over and over in my head. It’s from a guy who was also a great runner, although you probably know him for his other activities. 

Content idea for this week

What differences have you noticed with your business and the coastal startups who raise pantsloads of cash? Have you found any solace in your approach? Share your perspective and why you are proud to build your company, your way. 

Who I’m listening to: Cris Jacobs

What I’m reading: “The SaaS Playbook” by Rob Walling

Follow me for mid-week updates:

LinkedIn | TikTok | GoWild | Twitter | YouTube