Since the pandemic started, I have had the opportunity to network with numerous young founders. These young founders are either still in high school, or taking a gap year from college. Despite all their differences in running their own companies, I noticed one general obstacle hurting all of these companies.
Social Media?
No, the problem, in fact is not social media, the teens are far too disciplined to let these silicon valley tech companies grab their attention.
Well if it's not social media, it has to be funding.
Nope!
In reality, the number one problem today’s young founders are facing is becoming complacent with small wins.
This means that these young founders are often “settling”, or not achieving their full potential because they are extremely happy with small wins.
One of the companies I talked to got featured in several crypto newsletters and finance articles. They became complacent with this and essentially marked this as their ceiling. They believed this was the highest point the company could go and that had been achieved now.
After this recognition the founders took everything more lightly and nonchalantly. There was no longer the drive to accelerate and build a better product. However, after a few weeks, the founders realized that they could not only be featured in the news but actually scale their company which led them to build their software even more. Ultimately, their company got acquired, which was the true peak of the cycle. Had they stopped at the news feature, they would’ve never been acquired.
This begs the question how do we prevent this sense of complacency?
First, we have to identify why this happens. The small wins feel like gargantuan victories because of the dopamine released when a small win occurs. Gen-Z grew up in the age of tiktok, instagram, and social medias which feeds into this concept of instant gratification and instant dopamine.
The best way to combat this, as a young founder, is to stick to the company vision. Don’t take offers for large sums of money if it doesn’t align with your vision. Get interviewed, get featured on social media, but don't let these small W’s distract you from your ultimate goal of impacting a certain niche of people.
As Naval Ravikant, CEO of AngelList says, “play long term games, with long term people”.