Forged, Not Born: The Making of a Great Founder

I wanted to write a post about the DNA of great founders but realized the use of the term DNA is inapposite. A great founder is not born. One may be more or less pre-disposed, sure. Ultimately a truly great founder is a desired destination that takes a journey to reach.

The crucible of leading a start-up forges the founder - through challenge and resistance of loved ones who don't share the vision, from the evangelism it takes to recruit early, from design partners you can't convince to use the product, from loss of holidays and disposable income, from mounting stress from a burn rate you struggle to control, from a sinking feeling in your stomach when an incoming email preview starts with "regrettably" or "unfortunately", from near constant feeling of stark isolation...while you're surrounded by people all day, from a conviction you feel like acid on skin while the rest feel it mildly or not at all, from forced layoffs or furlough, late nights, weekends, from constant uncertainty, from failure, and the resulting feeling of judgment.

And with all of these, a truly great founder practices grace. The founder surely won't be received with any but he or she practices grace with everyone whose path crosses. This founder inspires with a light that leads the most distant among us home, with a warmth that gives certainty it was the sun. The founder is the sun. He or she inspires growth and creates warmth for everything and everyone he or she touches. Though the universe has nothing for the sun except hazard.

A great founder is a phenomenon, like the sun.