Every time I decide to quit my startup idea, do this

At the early idea stage of being a founder, if there’s one thing that is more overwhelming than co-founder-dating, it’s the constant mental roller coaster that comes with sticking to an idea that you decided was your ikigai in a burst of emotions two months ago.

An early-stage founder’s mind is the most disloyal, disoriented, and delusional mind that exists. My 80% founder network reading this, stay with me - I’m not throwing y’all under the bus. As I was saying, we’re constantly questioning everything - the efficacy of our solution, our understanding of the customer and the market, our ego-driven identities, our investors’ outlook, the industry we’re in, and more often than you’d think - our entire decision to become a founder. It’s actually worse than the friend at the restaurant who always ends up liking the other dish on the table more - it’s the friend who’s wondering if they should be playing laser tag instead.

The title, I’m starting to realize, was a bit of a spoiler. In any case, I need to know if I can stick through with something, anything - and so to you, my loyal readership, I’m asking for help. Every time I say “Man, I think I’m done working on this idea”, give me quick hug, and then ask me a few qualifying questions. Some examples:

• Are you just bored, or did you have a breakthrough that rendered the idea too risky?
• Did you sleep well last night? Have you been sleeping well at all?
• Is this based on that one customer discovery call you had yesterday?
• Is this because it’s hard to explain the idea to most people? Especially at parties?
• How long have you had this feeling?

Bear in mind that a defeated Anurag will convince you that he’s indeed deeply weathered from facing the challenges, and might meaningfully answer some/most of those questions. At which point, you must ask the most important question of them all - “Is it because it’s hard?” He’s going to look you in the eye, and probably say yes. To which you must tell him to get back to the drawing board, because he can’t just give up so soon.

See, startup ideas can be both dumb or face an asymptotic challenge to execute/distribute them. Founders shouldn’t continue working on an idea just because they announced it on their socials, and/or hired their founding team for it. Being able to pivot when necessary is usually the differentiating trait between a successful founder and a not-so-successful one (others being resilience and a bias for action).

However, startups are painfully hard. The earlier the company is, the deeper is the valley of death. And there’s no shame in realizing midway that maybe, this journey wasn’t for you. The thing about sticking to an idea being difficult is that it’s meant to feel uncomfortable, and that no other idea can save you from that discomfort. There are no honeymoon phases with startups - they usually start with a couple of tight punches right into your gut. The enthusiasm for an idea falls away as quickly as your body temperature drops when you step out in freezing weather. We just need to bundle up and walk up to the restaurant we decided to go to. We’re hungry, and a couple frozen hair won’t stop us from eating tonight.