Sticking with it

Last week I attended the Global IIT conference in Santa Clara. Jeff Immelt of GE was one of the keynote speakers. His was an interesting speech. It was not a rah-rah, high-energy, evangelizing one, but a comfortable 'this is what I think about' kind, where he didn't seem to mind taking a controversial position now and then. He touched on a variety of different points, globalization (good but only if it is win-win), energy (nuclear is not all bad) etc. He also talked about what new grads should look for in a job and asserted that building something is the most satisfying aspect of business. His advice was whether you were in a big company or a startup, you should stick with it for a few years and take part in building it.

This definitely resonated with me. Especially in startups, it is all about building - the product, the market, the team, the company itself. It is hard work though, and to add to the challenge, there is a generous dash of risk and uncertainty about everything in a startup. While it is very exciting, it has all the appeal of teetering on the edge of a cliff in a strong wind - never mind the amazing view. I recently ran across a couple of very competent, successful corporate managers who couldn't understand why anyone would want to work in a startup if you had to make do without admin help. Even the promise of a big monetary payoff doesn't seem worth the effort.

But for some, especially those with the entrepreneurial bent, building something delivers a huge rush. It's what rolls you off the bed at 6:00am for a conference call when you've been up until 3:00 getting ready for a demo. It's the excitement of the first splash page, the first non-founder employee, the first office address (which is not your home), the first user trial - every little milestone that proves that the company is becoming more real and is moving ahead and you're stepping back just a bit from the cliff's edge.

Immelt also talked about what it would take for new ideas to win, that's for the next post. Building takes commitment, and the satisfaction of building a company is one thing that every startup entrepreneur has in common with the CEO of GE - it's nice to be reminded of these self-evident truths once in a while.