“First, and most
importantly, realize that a startup puts you on an emotional
rollercoaster unlike anything you have ever experienced.
You will flip rapidly from a
day in which you are euphorically convinced you are going to own the world, to
a day in which doom seems only weeks away and you feel completely ruined, and
back again.
Over and over and over.”
“There is so much
uncertainty and so much risk around practically everything you are
doing. Will the product ship on time? Will it be fast enough? Will it have too
many bugs? Will it be easy to use? Will anyone use it? Will your competitor
beat you to market? Will you get any press coverage? Will anyone invest in the
company? Will that key new engineer join? Will your key user interface” “designer
quit and go to Google? And on and on and on…
Some days things will go
really well and some things will go really poorly. And the level of stress that
you’re under generally will magnify those transient data points into incredible
highs and unbelievable lows at whiplash speed and huge magnitude.
Sound like fun?”
Excerpt From: Marc
Andreessen. “The Pmarca Blog Archives.”