How to Stay Motivated as a Founder
How to Stay Motivated as a Founder
Hi startups, I’m Morgan, the founder of Gemoo. 
To be honest, being a startup founder is a stressful role. I believe that many of us intermittently want to give up, but have all persevered through self-regulation of emotions. What I want to say is that for a startup founder, learning to relax and stay motivated is crucial for our physical and mental health, team atmosphere, and business success.
So today, I want to share with you my own ways to keep myself motivated in this marathon of the startup.
1. Define Your Why
I’m not talking about our goal of a startup or the mission of your business, which shouldn’t keep changing all the time. Of course, this doesn’t mean you can’t change it, in fact, you should always check and make sure it’s still good. Remember, it’s gotta be the thing that’s pushing all your actions in the long run.
The world is always in a state of flux, with customers, technology, markets, workforces, and supply chains changing rapidly. In my view, the challenge has always been to respond to change while staying true to our mission. 
At this point, I recommend every startup to have a look at Jim Collins’ Hedgehog Concept. Collins proposes that your mission can be found at the intersection of three key truths about your business:
Three Circles of the Hedgehog Concept
In short, you should find motivation in the mission of your business. If you’re not feeling it, maybe it’s not your passion, you’re not delivering it profitably, or you’re just not the best at it. If it’s the case, find a mission that intersects and rediscover your motivation.
Don’t waste your life, we only live once.
2. Connect to Other Founders
Connecting with other founders could help you a lot since they were or are in the same boat as you. They can understand your situation, your trouble, and the chances or risks you may neglect; so we can encourage each other and even find breakthroughs for each other during the dilemma.
Building in public is one of the easiest ways to get connected with other founders, there are a bunch of communities and groups online you can join to find startup friends. Meeting founders who share your vision, or those with completely different ideas, can benefit our business both. We can learn from each other’s failures, discover opportunities, and adopt novel ideas to stay motivated as we work toward success. 
Here are some startup founder communities I recommend.
3. Celebrate Small Wins
Wins and losses are 2 well-known secrets of founder motivation, but too many founders only focused on learning from failures and playing down small wins. The small wins I’m talking about are anything you accomplish that aligns with your intentions, such as successfully raising your followers on Twitter by 100 as planned.
Celebrate the Small Wins
By the way, I am still in the challenge of this goal, it’ll be very appreciated if you follow me on Twitter and help me complete this little challenge.
To sum up, It’s essential to celebrate small wins along the way, appreciating our small wins and the small steps we take can be the difference between failing and succeeding. These successes remind you of the progress you’ve made and boost your energy to accomplish further challenges. 
4. Take breaks
We’ve all heard the proverb “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” since we were little, this is especially true when it comes to building a business. It can be exhausting even in normal times.
So, it’s essential to take a break to do something you like to stay motivated. For me, it’s either playing a game of LOL or going camping with my kids that is always effective. Being close to nature has a therapeutic effect that you won’t get anywhere else.
Or you can even start a brand new side project which may be a completely different problem in a different industry as a break. It can help you to change your mindset and thinking problems from a different angle, allowing you to break free from your original thinking patterns. Many times, when you shift your perspective and view problems from a different angle, the solution becomes clear.
5. Meet some Positive People
As a founder, you may often feel helpless and alone especially when you’re an indie hack; surrounding yourself with positive people helps you stay in a positive mood and provide you encouragement to move on.
Quote one of my favorite actors Cuba’s famous sayings：
Meet some Positive People
Final Thoughts
Motivation is a powerful force driving human nature, being a motivated founder requires a concentrated effort but it is essential. If you lack the motivation to build your business, you’ve failed 90% of the way.
Hope my tips could spark your motivation. Do you have any other methods recommended?
Please feel free to share them in the comment, love to hear from you. 
