So You Raised Money, Now What? : Under Pressure

I lot of people write about how to raise money, but I have seen very few blog posts about what happens AFTER you raise money.  People always ask, oh man won’t you feel so good after you raise money?  I’ve asked many entrepreneurs that, and the answer is always the same: are you kidding me? Now I actually have to do the work!  Now I know exactly what they mean.  It’s stressful.  I suppose it’s sort of like if you were married and you both always wanted kids and you loved the idea of kids, but then your partner accidentally gets pregnant and its totally a good thing, and you’re really excited about it but right when it pops out your entire life flashes before your eyes and you see all the blood, sweat and tears you’re going to have to put into raising this kid, not to mention all the money you’re going to have to save (because by God no child of yours is not going to college!) Also you’ll probably have to remodel your home because you need to make space for the new kids, maybe move to a new neighborhood because your area is all right for twenty something but there is no way a child would thrive here, and oh god the medical insurance premiums!) Oh yeah and surprise, it wasn’t just one kid- you got triplets.

Now don’t get me wrong, you’re super happy that it happened, no doubt. But man, it’s still stressful.  Because you have to make it work.  You NEED to make it work.

And then add on that layer- you’re motivated to prove everyone wrong.  The small part of you wants to prove everyone wrong, and make the people who didn’t invest in you feel so bad by making your current investors tons of money.  Just so you can stick it to the world.

But that’s not the solution.  That’s not good enough motivation. It’s the same reason Michael Jordan will always and forever be better than Kobe Bryant.  If you read both of their biographies, and see their quotes, you’ll realize why.  Kobe Bryant was great because he was motivated by fear: fear of failing, fear of proving everyone who said he couldn’t make it right.  But Michael Jordan?  He will be the greatest because he was motivated by the pure love of the game.  He didn’t care about anything else- just being the best at what he did.

That’s what I realize I have to do to be successful.  Once you raise money, you just focus on how to be the best in the world, on what you are creating, and making sure that you are doing it for the love of the game.