Every business is personal
Every business is personal if you are the founder.
We tend to separate our personal lives from our business lives. We make distinct limits on what's private and what's professional. As employees, we think there's a thing called work/life balance. Some of us also communicate differently, personally and professionally.
However, it is all just made up. There's no real difference between life and business. Both are founded, run, managed, and experienced by people.
All business is personal. Especially if you are the founder and the business is still in the early stage.
I've had two mentees apply to my program in the last week. They are inherently different, one is a founder of a high-performing business, and the other is a high-performing freelancer who wants to level up. But I asked the same question from both of them. It is the first question I ask anyone: what's your personal mission with your business?
Today, I will explain why I ask this question in the first place.
There are three types of personal missions for everyone. Or at least, these are the types that we think are missions, and we still have some personal skin in the game. These missions drive founders from the early stages to their growth stage until their scaling up.
Once the company becomes a giant enterprise, things get different, of course, but I don't work with CEOs of 1000+ people companies.
Whichever your mission is, it ultimately defines the business strategy we are trying to achieve together. And when I say ultimately, I mean: fundamentally.
Being a founder is pretty hardcore. I think everyone would agree that on plain paper, it makes much more sense to get a high-paying job and run some side hustle in the background. To choose the hard way, being a founder, or entrepreneur, you have to have the drive, that mission.
The one with a lifestyle.
The first and most common mission is the lifestyle mission. It is what most solopreneurs pursue, and to most founders, it is also the mission that defines why they are building their businesses in the first place.
They do it because they want to tell something, stand behind or against something, or support their deeply personal lifestyle. The entire mission is super personal - it is all about their personality.
This mission means a lot to the founder. It is part of who they are. Because of that, some things are completely out of the window:
First, they rarely accept outside investment. If it's an investment, it must be a professional partner rather than a VC only interested in making money. In most cases, they are all bootstrapped and stay bootstrapped.
Second, they will never sell their business. So an exit won't happen. You can't sell your personality to anyone, right? It's like putting your child up for adoption - you would only do that if there's some crazy thing happening to you.
Third, they rarely become a unicorn. Or even a big-shot colossal enterprise. They often stay small on purpose. Scaling, therefore, is entirely different from anyone else. It's hard to scale a personality.
I usually prefer these founders as mentees. They have a story; they are interesting, engaged, and usually driven by good causes. They have a heart that is open to the world.
The one who needs recognition.
The second and third options are equally important, and when you think about startup founders, these are the ones that usually come to your mind.
One is the founder with a mission to make a mark. It's all about recognition. They want to be known, celebrated, and respected. This deep desire for love is also personal, but it is driven not by telling your story to the world but by a need from the world to recognize you.
These founders have "scaled from 1M to 100M" and "5 successful exits" in their bio or tagline. All they want is measurable recognition. It's almost always connected to money - either by revenue or hefty buy-out.
They are drawn towards the exit and very interested in measurable scaling. Every decision they make has to have an impact on the growth. They might have investment, even from VCs, until it supports their growth. They never give up control - only if it's a full buy-out. They might become a unicorn, but it's rarely the case - they get an exit way before that. It's not about changing the world; it's about recognition, remember?
I rarely work with these founders. To be frank, most of the founders I've met fell into this category - the picture is not that shiny and bright. Those who deeply need to be recognized tend to take shortcuts. They don't treat their people nicely, they are fixed on growth at all costs, and they sometimes make decisions that are, at best questionable. Sometimes, the drive has a good intent, we match well, and I can help them grow.
The one who wants to change the world.
The last category is the variation of the previous one but with genuinely good intent. These founders just want to change the world. I know, most people who end up on the cover of Forbes tend to say this without their face moving a bit. Most lie; of course, they are part of the previous category. But some genuinely think they have a grander mission.
They either had this mission at the very start, but I think most of them just realized during the journey that they were sitting on something mega-big. That's when everything changes, and they want to achieve something grandiose.
They rarely sell - so buy-outs and exits are out of the question. They seek VC funding early on but won't give up their controlling shares. They need the capital to go big, but they are the dreamers who will make it happen.
To most of them, they either fail or become a success story. Either way, both outcomes will become grandiose. These are your Adam Neumanns, Mark Zuckerbergs, and Elon Musks.
I wouldn't be writing this newsletter if I had ever had the chance to work with a founder like this. But my gut tells me that working with a founder with these grandiose dreams is super challenging. But being on their journey is a journey of a lifetime.
One last thing.
Some of us don't realize which category we are in, truly. The public's gravitation draws us to become the last category, someone with a genius grandiose dream that changes the world. We tend to tell ourselves that everything else is less desirable.
But it is OK to stay small, leading a life driven by our story. And it is also totally OK to make money and gather that recognition on the way.
Our personal goals define us as they define how we need to scale a business. So figure yourself out first on a personal level. Then, if you are ready, you can start building your business around that.
