an applicant to the Next 36 asked me today re: "characteristics of early-stage founders that may initially appear ambitious but ultimately prove to be unremarkable over time"
sounds like me! (particularly to those who knew me circa 2012)
my "theory" re: "ambitious people" "giving up"
overall, people are constantly trying to find some balance between: pursuing their long-term values/desires (of which there may be multiple competing) and willingness to sacrifice a positive day-to-day experience
"ambitious individuals that try entrepreneurship"...
they start with strong value/desire for something that entrepreneurship purports to give short and/or long-term
("publicly approved version of success", "money", "impact", "control/freedom to do things they want")
(what someone truly values is often unclear even to that person; we're good at lying to ourselves, we mimic the values/desires of those around us, and we tend to be pliant - ie. trying to appease other people, based on their values)
they eventually experience the "hardness" of entrepreneurshipÂ
entrepreneurship, even on a personal level, is exponential, and not linear; in the early days, it seems you're going slower and effort-in:result-out is worse than safer pathways
it is often the first hard thing that many people experience, particularly related to something that is a choice
(these people often don't have adequate ways of dealing with it)
the industry is built around most companies failing (VC-backed startup success rates won't improve over time, because VCs will just invest in riskier and riskier things)
most ambitious people are very demanding of themselves, which acts as a motivator when things are going well, but can also cause a fast negative spiral when things aren't
("why are you so dumb, such a failure, weak, undisciplined, etc. etc")
and/or they experience something that changes their values
ex. say, an "impact" driven person realizing/starting-to-believe that "startups succeed based on (a) what the market wants and (b) what VCs are willing to invest in - highly profitable, high growth), and that doesn't fit with the vision of impact I want to have"
or, having a kid
or, stumbling into enough money to be comfortable (a small exit, or inheritance, or acquihire)
they subconsciously (or consciously) start doing a mental/emotional calculus of "is the cost of the path I'm on worth it given the desires I'm trying to achieve"
ie. the person's true values are "put to the test"
which may result in a decrease in the importance of the desires/values that were motivating entrepreneurshipÂ
("is making a fuck-ton of money really that strong of my desire?")
("was my pursuit of a startup really just seeking a form of seeking validation from my parents, based on their values")
...or increasing the importance of other competing values -Â ("I have a kid now, family is more important")
they consider alternate pathsÂ
"maybe playing politics in a corporation is worth it, different risk profile (don't need to live off ramen), still can get access to a ton of resources",
"non-profits / government are the right way to tackle the problem I care about"
"a well-paying job is what my family needs right now"
finally, they, (often reluctantly, and with much mental anguish, and over a long period) switch to a "less ambitious" path (because "being on an ambitious" path is no longer what they're optimizing for)
reluctantly, because the shift in values is subtle; the person still cares quite a lot about the things that led to entrepreneurship, but now, it's more complicated
                 Â
I have personally gone through this journey.
From being very good academically, winning the "top entrepreneur" prize when I went through Next 36, getting to a million users with Penyo Pal...
but, then... founder conflict, tensions with my girlfriend, rug-pulled by an investor whom I trusted, seeing my co-founder burn-out and abandon startups forever... it got tough.
And I didn't have good coping mechanisms. My values were clobbered – I didn't really know what I cared strongly about anymore. I kept trucking along, at a reduced capacity, for many many years. But, even my "good work habits" eventually disintegrated. ...and I would constantly beat myself up about faltering in my ambitious trajectory.
In my mind, I no longer think VC-backed-startups are the correct path for the change I want to make, I don't particularly want to give the market what it wants to pay for (because I think places where there are market-failures are important), and I personally have a longer time horizon than VCs do. And... I likely still don't have the emotional resilience to do startups the Silicon-Valley-way.
But there's still that voice that thinks I'm a failure and yearns for me to be the ambitious super-mega-impact entrepreneur that "I was on the path to be"
Actionable ways to avoid "the stumble"? IMO:
continuously investing in building up resilience to adversity and good coping habitsÂ
(various flavours of mental health practices work for this, I'm partial to ACT
ex. I realized that I developed a habit of avoidance-of-discomfort, and now I've been "putting in the work" on addressing that
surrounding yourself almost exclusively with other entrepreneurs / ambitious people / people-you-seek-to-be-like, thus normalizing the values those people share
(...the desires to own a house, or have kids, etc. - are lessened when everyone around you is willing to sacrifice those things for ambition)
a "professional entrepreneur" mindset
you do your best, but realize, that the industry expects high risk; ie. you are choosing to play in a high risk environment, and you can only do so much to mitigate the risk; ie. investors are using you to make risky bets, if they weren't risky, they wouldn't be interested
"burning the boats" - making your current vision the only option (so your future self can't change their values)
how exactly, I don't know, b/c this isn't a strategy that I personally support - b/c it's fragile - if you do "fail" (likely, it's a risky space; there are more things out of your control, than in your control) - then it becomes harder to recover
(I stress actionable because many factors that impact this aren't, like: biological-low-stress-response, low-self-awareness, obsessive-personality, psychopathy etc.)