Читать книгу The Resilient Founder - Mahendra Ramsinghani - Страница 16

This book is a rough guide to developing awareness of your inner resources; you could call it your psychological quotient. Just as we have developed frameworks for IQ and EQ, knowing a bit about our own psychology can help develop emotional resilience. Even possibly address the unspoken challenges of depression in any business leader's journey. Most entrepreneurs often struggle with the dark nights and suffer from anxiety, depression, and breakdown. Some get help; they keep going. Some train themselves to get out of the funk. Some give up. Like any grueling marathon, the number of people at the finish line is far smaller than those at the start.

Starting a company is like eating glass and staring into the abyss.

— Elon Musk

We know IQ and we know EQ – the impact of our intellect and emotions in the world of business is well understood. Psychological quotient can be best defined as the ability to identify and develop our inner resources – the ability of entrepreneurs to tackle challenges and flourish. With psychology and the study of our behaviors, we can identify and eliminate subconsciously self-constructed barriers and skillfully navigate the game of business. And if our resources fall short, how should we identify early warning signs of our flailing mental states? Is this burnout? Is this depression? Where is my “battery about to die” sign? What are some tools and techniques to build self-awareness of our psychology and build endurance? When the waves of external stress factors engulf the founders, we find we can no longer swim as skillfully as we once did. “It never stops,” says one founder. The competition is trying to kill you, your team members are arguing, asking for raises and everyone wants to be on a CEO career path,” says one founder. Although we cannot control the external factors, how we perceive and react to them is the heart of this game.

In the following pages, we will explore lessons of endurance shared by over 150 founders – how they wrestled with the dark angels, one day at a time, and reached the other side. We live in a world where passion is an overblown fetish. Bravado and chutzpah is the only currency of champions. Emotions are buried deep. To express the full range of our emotions would be considered unprofessional, weak, immature.

Amidst these social constraints, these founders share their authentic and honest insights. Theirs is the real bravado. In sharing their journey, they offer strength, solace, and guidance. While founders who absorb these lessons may benefit, I believe it can also provide some guidance to the investor community. For venture capitalists, the ones who have gladly provided the ammunition for the disruption wars, encountering the wounded soldier is somewhat uncharted territory. We thought we were being helpful, strategizing, connecting, adding value, cheering, supporting, but how did we get here? What stance should an investor take when founders reach the end of the rope? Instead of pointing the founders to the nearest friendly therapist, or funding the next meditation app, how can investors take a proactive approach to address the crux of the problem?

In putting this book together, my somewhat meager attempt to highlight the importance of psychological quotient might have fallen short. This is a vast, complex issue. And we have no simple straight answers. Bear with me as we unpack this heavy stuff.