
What keeps you going? - housewife
For all of you out there who are working on start ups, or have, be they successful or not, how do you get over those humps where you just want to throw in the towel or move on to another project? I am not in this particular slump at the moment, in fact quite the opposite, I am more energized and optimistic than ever, but I have been a few times, and worked through it. What are your personal strategies that help you move through a demoralizing/demotivating period in your pursuit?<p>This is an open ended, "what makes you tick" question, just to get some interesting pov, not an invitation for negative jackassery.
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pasbesoin
I'm going to come at this from another perspective. Some years ago, a friend
lost a significant portion of their health to a couple of unfortunate
injuries. Doctors have not been able to fix these problems and have actually
on more than one occasion made them worse.

As this person describes, before this occurred, life had it's ups and downs.
But even with the serious downs, it was typically about a three day cycle
before they started to "bounce back". Even when the underlying issue was not
resolved, the current day and current experiences started to once again
predominate, and things started to come "into perspective".

Currently, they experience some level of discomfort almost constantly, and the
infrequent "good periods" are quite unpredictable. The result is that they
often simple can't concentrate on things in a sustained fashion, and so they
also can't enter the state of "flow" that used to make them so productive.

My point: GUARD YOUR HEALTH. And pay attention to your health. If you are
struggling, stop and ask yourself: How am I doing, physically?

I've become convinced that a significant portion of the U.S.'s "mental health"
issues actually have their origin in physical health, or lack thereof.

\--

One of my issues with health care in the U.S. is that, when the doctor makes a
mistake, you "pay twice" to -- hopefully -- have it fixed. If you don't want
to do that, and/or they don't fix things, you face a very expensive and
uncertain process. In this person's case, all they really wanted was to "feel
better". One would think that addressing this, medically, would be the
simplest solution, But... the U.S. health care system has a way of entirely
reversing priorities.

Insurance helps ameliorate this somewhat (a cap on your own, immediate out-of-
pocket expenses). If you don't have insurance (perhaps, ever more so these
days, through no fault of your own), or they deny your claim, you're fully
screwed.

~~~
housewife
This is a really great point. I have long believed that physical and mental
health are so connected to one another. I actually have had this proven to me
very recently in two instances. My mother in law has cancer, and she recently
stopped responding to chemo, so she stopped the treatment. Now basically all
she can do is fight with sheer will (which she has a LOT of luckily) and she's
doing this vegan diet, which has been known to cure some people. The funny
thing though, is that she was saying the other day she feels so much more able
to fight it now that she's off chemo and not feeling sick all the time. She's
feeling like a million bucks, I hope it stays that way... The other instance
is myself; I am currently recovering from my second go with postpartum
depression. I am ok now, I actually feel like dynamite too :) but I did have
to go on meds for it. It's unreal how it affects you physically. I was
sleeping like 16 hours a day for a few weeks, and still exhausted (and I was
blessed with a baby that slept through the night at 5 weeks, so it wasn't due
to actual sleep deprivation). And now I'm really feeling healthy. Anyone will
tell you too, exercise and sleep and diet are some of the keys to keeping
depression at bay.

I am fortunate that I live in Alberta, and don't have to go through the woes
of the US health care system. I never take our free healthcare for granted. I
am sorry for what your friend is going through...

Thanks for the post pasbesoin!

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cristianpascu
I've in a startup (<http://flairbuilder.com>), all by myself, for more than 3
years now. And it's been a ride. Lots of ups and downs.

Most of the time, simply taking a break helps a lot. I go to the movies, meet
friends. Spend time with my family, although not as much as I should or want
to.

Other than that, I also have other passions: I play guitar/keyboards, I read
stuff (although not as much as I should or want to). I started a master in
Philosophy, which is both challenging and exciting. I wish I'd become a film-
maker someday, but the school is pretty expensive. Don't know about it.

However, I got tired of being on my own as it's hard work and energy
consuming. I'm working on a new product now (<http://bicodr.com>), which
excites me. And I also use the excitement back into the current product, which
still brings a good income.

~~~
housewife
Yes, I think this does really help. I didn't really notice, but I do take time
for these things, I have to, I am married and have 2 daughters, so it is not
really an option not to...but I didn't reflect on how that balances the hectic
start up part of life, even though being a mom in itself is hectic! Thanks for
the input!

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fezzl
Paying customers. Alternatively, active users. Any form of positive market
reaction to what I'm building keeps me going.

~~~
housewife
Absolutely agree, thanks fezzl.

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httpitis
Found your post during a search for another post about favorite programming
languages. I read another post suggesting going to the local library to work a
couple of hours. I've contemplated this but never got around to it yet. I wish
you the best of luck on finding tools and habits to keep things moving.

~~~
housewife
we have thought about doing this before, and not done it yet either, lol.
thanks!

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jcr
Though we only live about 30 minutes apart, I've never met PG, and hence, I
don't really know him. There are many people on this site that do know him,
and have worked with him, so they would definitely be in a better position to
elaborate on what PG calls "the trough of sorrow" faced by nearly all
startups. The following link mentions it, and a bit of searching will yield a
lot more results:

<http://www.inc.com/ss/can-paul-graham-mass-produce-start>

I don't know if PG originated the phrase or not, but somewhere in his copious
writing and speaking, he once said something along the lines of, "One of the
toughest thing for YC is keeping up the spirits of a batch of founders going
through the trough of sorrow." --Though I've quoted it, this is not a direct
quote, and worse, off the top of my head I can't remember the exact reference
I should cite. In other words, I may be misquoting him, and if so, hopefully
he'll correct me.

As for me personally, the thing that keeps me going is remembering how lucky I
am.

Today is a great and wonderful day, but in more precise terms, I feel good
enough to be out in my little garage/office and I good enough to type out this
comment. To put it bluntly, my health sucks, and as such, my usefulness is
curtailed about half the time, sometimes more. Every day when I can read and
learn something is a good day, even if I hurt too much to type out any notes,
ideas or code.

I admire and even envy the people starting new companies. I may not be able to
use or afford their services, but I still admire their efforts; they are doing
something I am physically unable to do. Each of them is taking on the
amazingly fun challenge of starting a business, and I may never again have the
luxury, the drive, or the physical ability needed to once again enjoy the
challenge of building a startup.

None the less, I count my blessings. I have a roof over my head, food on my
table, and relative peace in my area of the world here in the silicon valley,
so I have much to be thankful for in life, but more importantly, I _KNOW_ I am
very lucky. I appreciate the little things I can still do even if they seem
pointlessly trivial by comparison.

If you've never been thankful for the ability to simply cut the food on your
plate, let alone having food on your plate, then you are probably caught in
the mental spiral of worrying about unimportant things.

Today was "Demo Day" for the Winter 2012 batch of YCcombinator startups, and
you can be certain that every founder in the batch had many worries and
concerns about presenting their companies to potential investors for the first
time. The upcoming deadline for YC applications at the end of the month has
all of the potential candidates of the next YC batch worried and concerned. If
you are not involved in YC and have your own startup, you also have plenty of
worries and concerns.

The thing to remember is, as a founder you are very lucky to have these
problems to worry about. If you can learn to take a step back and remember how
lucky you are, then you'll learn to enjoy and appreciate each and every little
challenge you face.

I hope this helps.

~~~
housewife
JCR, this really puts things into perspective... When I posted this question,
I was thinking of business, not life as a whole, and I think you raise an
excellent point. I do have a lot to be thankful for, and I am incredibly
lucky. This is something I will always keep in my mind when the "trough of
sorrow" gets me...thanks for the comment :)

