This. Shit. Is. Hard

I left a cushy role running design at one of New York's largest venture studios to transition into the grueling world of startups.

It's been hard.

But, it's also been one of the most transformative experiences of my career.

Here are the 3 most important things I've learnt along the way.

Doubt is a normal part of the process. I've talked to founders who have run companies making millions in revenue. They all experienced doubt on their first day. Many still experience it today.

Start shipping. The biggest antidote to doubt is action. As you ship, you'll build more confidence and see how your behavior informs your thoughts and feelings, as much as your thoughts and feelings inform your behavior.

Keep at it for 3 months. Persist. Ride the highs. Ride the lows. At that point, you'll either have shipped an idea that excites you (and others), or you'll have learned that an idea doesn't work. Either way, you'll have learned critical founder lessons, and will be one step closer to finding that killer idea.

Either way, you win.

P.S. If you want to see what it's like for founders to go through the doubt, the shipping, and the 3 months of persistence, there's tons of online resources to do so: YC runs startup school which is a free online & community for early stage VC-backed founders & Indie hackers is a community for ideation stage bootstrapped entrepreneurs. I'm also helping to run an event which will showcase what a few founders have worked on after tackling a sprint for 3 months (links here https://hopin.com/events/day-one-showcase if you're curious).

Remember to keep going.