Under-estimated Founders have to develop patience
I have worked with many under-estimated Founders and consider myself one. I don’t know and don’t have the textbook definition of what an under-estimated Founder is, but I use it in the context of being an unlikely Founder. An unlikely Founder to me is anyone, irrespective of ethnicity, upbringing, gender, or socioeconomic status, who has the desire to be or finds themselves confronted with being an entrepreneur.
What makes someone want to solve problems and to create solutions that are commercially viable when they have no experience, exposure, and heritage of doing so? That is for smarter people than me to figure out, but what I do know based on personal experience and observing others is that under-estimated Founders have to be patient and most aren’t. I wasn’t. I was anything but patient. In fact, I could have been the poster, billboard, and meme for impatience for a much longer period of time than I want to think about. And I see it in others. Just not under-estimated Founders, but it appears to be a greater issue among under-estimated Founders.
Under-estimated Founders want to break out. They want to break out of labels. They want to break out of what people think they are capable of or not capable of. They yearn for some respect. They ache to be somebody and to do something of consequence. I know, this all described me too. When I was younger I just kept telling myself I just want to do something. Mind you, I had no idea what that something was and how I was going to make it happen. The narrative caused me to drop out of a technical school where I was learning how to write code to become a developer. I made it 1.5 years into a 3-year degree program. Yep, impatient. Things have turned out okay for me, but they might not have solely based on me not being patient and seeing the degree through. I went back to school later in life to get a degree so as to not have that piece of unfinished business.
When I speak with under-estimated Founders now, I see their impatience. Everything has to happen today for them. If it doesn’t, it isn’t good enough and they move on to the next thing. They are on a constant search for they’re, “I just want to do something”, like I was. For many the impatience is grounded in the reality that they don’t have a lot and their lives are not what they want them to be. This is a particularly challenging spot for under-estimated Founders. Scarcity drives impatience and impatience continues the scarcity. It becomes a vicious cycle. The thing that needs to happen today just cycles forward on repeat day after day. Under-estimated Founders who don’t overcome their impatience are destined to end up in this negative cycle.
My advice to under-estimated Founders is to slow themselves down and to play the movie through to the end if they don’t become more patient. The Groundhog Day ending of the same feelings and the same experiences happening over and over again doesn’t end well fueled by their impatience. Sure, startups need to move fast and there has to be urgency about the work and company, but working at a fast pace is different than being impatient. Patience can be attained when someone is working with intention and discipline (which is my favorite powerhouse combination of how to accomplish anything of consequence and substance in any aspect of life) on something deeply meaningful to them. Being patient is a by-product of someone being intentional and disciplined. Under-estimated Founders have not had a lot of practice and examples of positive intention and discipline in their lives. They might have some negative examples, but likely not too many positive ones. When an under-estimated Founder can learn to operate with intention and discipline, patience will follow and they will be able to focus and perform at a higher-level.
If you are an under-estimated Founder who is impatient and constantly on a treadmill of finding your thing, step off the treadmill and decide what really matters to you and what you really care about. Arlan Hamilton of Backstage Capital is a great example. Arlan decided she wanted to become a Venture Capitalist so she could invest in under-estimated Founders like her. She had tried several different businesses for them all to come up short for various reasons. But I would say that it wasn’t until she became intentional and disciplined about becoming a VC that she found her groove, including achieving a positive level of patience.
Being perpetually impatient is a story that doesn’t end well for any Founder, but especially not for under-estimated Founders who typically have less awareness, access, and resources. Patience is actually more important for under-estimated Founders because of this. There is no Plan-B. There is nothing to fall back on. These same dynamics that make under-estimated Founders impatient to begin with are the very dynamics that make overcoming them and being patient even more important. It is said that patience is a virtue. I care less about the virtuousness than I do about how much it can help under-estimated Founders to fulfill their potential. Become patient because it has practical value to you as an under-estimated Founder.
