Memo - Like Staring Into The Abyss And Eating Glass
By: Wilson
I recently came across an Elon Musk interview where he said that starting a company is like "staring into the abyss and eating glass." He goes on to characterize that 1) staring into the abyss stems from the neverending problems any startups face and 2) eating glass because the CEO is always dealing with the worst problems in the company.
I thought it was the perfect analogy to describe the journey I have been on since I've invested in energy. The problems never seem to end and moments of happiness seem temporary at best. Like a person stuck in a bad relationship, you wonder what you got yourself into at times.
So I think it's safe to say that anyone who has made it this far in the journey, you are probably not normal. Because if you were, you would have jumped ships eons ago. Cheers to all the abnormal people reading this.
Tough but worth it...
A mentor of mine once said to me, "Any successful business person is an eternal optimist." Why? Because the life of business beats you down over and over again, and for those that can't get back up, you lost. But for those that do, the rewards never seem enough to compensate for the pain, yet, we all still try it anyway.
I think it's with this sense of optimism that I continue to try. Throughout the years I've been in the business, I paid for my tuition with my P&L. While it's never the smartest thing to learn from your own mistake (P.S. you want to learn from other people's mistakes), it's better to have learned than the other way around.