It doesn’t get easier.

Just different.

I get to meet and chat with many founders and leaders through our work at AWH (a digital innovation firm) and Simply Strategic (a strategic guidance firm). A constant theme is that after some time or level of accomplishment, they expect things to get easier and are surprised and even demoralized when they don’t.

Informing them that they should be prepared for things to continue to be challenging, just different, is one of the most difficult parts of advising. It is understandable. People who have been grinding for a long time expect that, at some point, they will be able to grind with less intensity. I get it; I’ve been there. Grinding hard for an extended period, which it almost always takes to accomplish anything of substance and consequence, will wear even the most resilient person down. Creating something that works with some level of success is challenging. It demands a level of focus and effort different from what most people have ever done.

We want to believe that when we start something, it will get easier over time. It doesn’t. It becomes different, but it rarely becomes easier.

We want to believe that the management and our commitment of time and energy will decrease the more mature something we’ve been working on becomes because of how taxing the process and existence of creating something is. We need…