Below is an excerpt from our book Startups Made Simple: How to Start, Grow and Systemize Your Dream Business. Learn more about the book here. 

Superpower #4: Momentum

Hopefully you’re starting to see how critical energy is, and how you can use it to your advantage. Anyone who has watched a sports event where a team comes back from behind and then dominates knows exactly what I mean by momentum; you can feel it in the air. It’s one of the best sensations in business and life, and I highly recommend you use it to fuel your startup. Momentum supercharges energy. 

So, how do we build momentum? As you are probably starting to realize, all these superpowers work together in many ways. As we’ll see later, having a great Vision and learning to Execute will create momentum, which is infectious, your team will naturally be motivated by your momentum, just like the sports team example above.

The reason why I separated it out as a superpower is that I just want to make sure you recognize the power of momentum and use it to your advantage. You’ll feel it typically as a gut feeling and possibly a rush of energy that may last hours or weeks. Use it! Sometimes, I’ll only hit a good surge of momentum once a week or even once every few weeks, but one thing I never do is waste it. I know when I’m in the zone and use that momentum to get a massive amount of things done, push big projects forward, get things done around the house, or even knock off a bucket list item. (You can use momentum for fun!) 

One final tip I have concerning momentum is to try to preserve a little so you can reignite it the next day. I’m somewhat infamous to those who know me for being able to work 18 hours in a row on a project or idea. While that allowed me to get great things done when I was younger, there was always an inevitable crash afterward. The older, wiser me knows that I should cut out after the momentum begins to fall off a bit and simply reignite it the next day, letting my brain work on it and continue being excited while I sleep. 

Energy Best Practices

Having plenty of Energy is usually a matter of doing some very basic things but I realize a lot of this goes out the window while doing a startup. Here are some best practices:

• Good sleep. Prioritize sleep above all as your main source of energy and renewal. Sleep at least 7 hours (and more if necessary) and make sure you practice proper sleep hygiene (minimize blue light at night, cool room, no noises, etc.). There are many good sleep apps, trackers and even special beds and “light blockers” available to optimize sleep. 
• Clean diet. Most startups are run on a consistent supply of donuts, pizza and other junk and while this is fine occasionally, you’ll want to keep your diet as clean as possible to maintain an ideal weight and to provide plenty of energy. Consider intermittent fasting which is getting very popular among high-performing people as a source of energy and clarity.
• Exercise. We all know we should do it so make exercise a priority. Even jogging around the block or bodyweight exercises at the office are helpful and a big key is finding an exercise routine you like doing. Realize that exercising actually gives you more energy, improves sleep and optimizes mood. 
• Purge negative energy. Negative people, thoughts (negative self-talk) and media should be removed from your life as much as possible. You want to remove anything that drains your energy including abusing alcohol or drugs.
• Emotional self control. Work on becoming thick-skinned and “highly undisturbable”. I recommend a few books in the Chapter Resources. 
• Sunlight. More data is coming in every day about how important sunlight and your vitamin D levels are for overall health and energy. Get plenty of sunlight, have your vitamin D levels checked regularly and supplement or use a light therapy device to resolve any issues. 
• Supplement.  Get a regular panel of blood work for the various markers of health and supplement accordingly. Apparently, vitamin D, magnesium, iodine, omega-3 and other nutrients are at historically low levels across the western population and can usually be resolved with simple supplementation. I list some tests in the Chapter Resources. 
• Meditation or relaxation. As mentioned, a huge percentage of highly successful people have a regular meditation or relaxation routine. There are many books, apps and websites that make this ridiculously easy to learn and I list some in the Chapter Resources as well. 
• Sense of humor. As discussed, it’s all a game and you can’t take any of it with you. Maintain a sense of humor, even in the face of bad situations and you’ll tend to get through things just fine. Laughter is a powerful cure to many problems. 

This was an excerpt from our book Startups Made Simple: How to Start, Grow and Systemize Your Dream Business. Learn more about the book here or see our previous excerpts here. 

Below is an excerpt from Part One of our book Startups Made Simple: How to Start, Grow and Systemize Your Dream Business. Learn more about the book here.  

“Optimism is a force multiplier.” – Colin Powell

I’m sure there are successful founders who are not optimistic—I’ve just never met one. Seriously though, an optimistic mindset is a huge source of energy, and the good news is that optimism can be learned. (See the Chapter Resources for more information.) Pessimistic and negative people are usually not only low energy themselves, but they tend to drain the energy of everyone around them. Pessimism is the last thing a founder needs in the startup process.

Think about it, have you ever met a pessimistic “Debbie Downer” who was a successful businessperson—or successful anything? I cannot think of one example outside of perhaps a few “artist” types that used negativity in their artwork. Otherwise, every inspirational business book or biography inevitably has an incredibly optimistic person behind it, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence.

Note that I’m not advising you to not be realistic; you can be realistic and optimistic. I’ve joked that optimism is worth twenty extra IQ points because you don’t immediately give up. When you have optimism, you give your brain permission to look at the bright side of things as they happen and see possibilities that a pessimist may have rejected or not even thought about.

That’s exactly how an entrepreneur needs to deal with the inevitable curveballs that will be thrown at them. They need to realistically assess the situation and see if there are any solutions to mitigate the problem, change the situation to their advantage or, at the very least, learn a valuable lesson. An optimistic mindset and many of the other superpowers in this part of the book will help you move away from pessimism and toward solving problems, which is what great founders primarily do.

This was an excerpt from our book Startups Made Simple: How to Start, Grow and Systemize Your Dream Business. Learn more about the book here or see our previous excerpts here. 

Below is an excerpt from the Introduction of our book Startups Made Simple: How to Start, Grow and Systemize Your Dream Business. Learn more about the book here.  

“I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” – Steve Jobs

“Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” – Calvin Coolidge

I’ve noticed the best entrepreneurs are known for their perseverance; they can be trusted to get through the rough stuff. So many of the great tales in business and in life are about the person who simply did not give up, even after many obstacles and setbacks. Resilience, persistence, grit, tenacity, confidence, and relentlessness are related traits, and in general, overcoming fear is a big part of perseverance. 

In my opinion, people have been taught to quit way too quickly. Scammy marketing and advertising has conditioned many of us to expect fast or even instant results. The truth is that many skills take years to develop. Some things as simple as a handstand can take many months of daily practice to master, yet the majority of people give up in a few weeks or if they can’t find a program called “Mastering Handstands in Only One Week!”

This doesn’t mean it will take years to learn how to get your company going; it only means that you shouldn’t immediately give up if you’re not performing like Elon Musk in the first year of your startup. Some startups, the smart ones anyway, may take a year or two to work on their idea, test things in the marketplace, quickly pivot to another product or service, and continue learning from their customers. There will be much more on this in Part Two of this book, and there is such a thing as going on too long. Mostly, the problem lies with giving up too early. 

For now, just know that your first instinct, especially when things get tough, may be to quit. Quitting sounds so comfortable (for lack of a better word) when things are bad. I wanted to quit several times in the first couple of years for, in retrospect, completely ridiculous reasons. 

Make sure that if you’re thinking about quitting that you’re not closer to victory than you think you are. A lot of entrepreneurs quit on the ten-yard line right before they are about to succeed. This is so common that it’s almost legend now. I’m asking you to carefully consider when you feel like giving up. I’ve learned that some days are just going to be a “shit sandwich,” and you have to take a bite. You will have bad days or maybe even bad weeks, and a perseverance mindset will help you greatly. 

Also, business is not nearly as hard as some stories out there about people sleeping in their cars or having nervous breakdowns. In fact, I think a lot of successful entrepreneurs like to embellish their startup stories to motivate their teams and create a hero’s journey for the startup. (I’m certainly guilty of that myself on some occasions.)

However, the business world can be competitive and you can be pushed around if you’re too sensitive or thin-skinned. You want to develop a thick skin and also hire other people who have thick skins. In my opinion, overly sensitive people are typically not fit to be in a startup environment. A lot of business is about not being intimidated by partners, employees, customers, or vendors. 

I’ve found a stoic outlook can be best for getting through the rough patches. Winston Churchill once said,“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” I’ve also learned that in business “they can’t eat you” (customers, vendors, competitors, employees, etc.), so some days you have to just smile at the absurdity of worrying about things as if they’re life or death and try to have a good time with it all. 

Finally, there is such a thing as having too much perseverance; a good entrepreneur knows when it’s time to quit. This may not always be obvious to us, but a very good indicator is when the product or service is not getting any traction despite your best efforts. 

In these cases, you don’t have to admit defeat; only acknowledge that you don’t like working for free and the market is firing you—for now. In Step 1 of this book, you’ll see how this has happened sometimes dozens of times to great founders and is not something that should discourage you. 

Remember it’s all a Game

“One of the symptoms of approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.” – Bertrand Russell

In reality, it’s all a big game, and you can’t take any of it with you in the end (regardless of your religious beliefs), so really take some time to consider that you don’t need to take any of this stuff too seriously. If you can take care of your physical and mental health while persevering through it all, you’ll do great. 

The universe is inconceivably large, billions of years old, and you’re a tiny organism on a spinning rock orbiting a random star in one of billions of galaxies. Even if your work was actually world-changing and important, the universe would barely notice. Genghis Khan or Caesar were little more than a infinitesimal blip in the universe, and taking yourself too seriously is a great way to be miserable. This is not meant to depress you or to say your work doesn’t have meaning, but to provide perspective for you to remember that all you have is this life now, so do what you can to give it meaning for you and try to have a good time. 

This was an excerpt from our book Startups Made Simple: How to Start, Grow and Systemize Your Dream Business. Learn more about the book here or see our previous excerpts here. 

Below is an excerpt from Part One of our book Startups Made Simple: How to Start, Grow and Systemize Your Dream Business. Learn more about the book here.  

When I talk about Energy as it relates to startups, I’m giving it a broad definition to include not only your physical health but also your mental health and things like perseverance, the mental toughness required to get you through the rough spots of being an entrepreneur.

Superpower #1: Health

“The first wealth is health.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Say there are two founders that have the exact same set of skills and knowledge but one is healthier than the other. Nine times out of ten, the healthier founder will outperform the other. Healthy founders simply have more mental and physical energy to bring to bear on the various issues that a startup encounters, not to mention they will be sick less and able to bounce back faster from setbacks. You want to prioritize your health and energy first, which will allow you to be more effective in almost every aspect of your life. 

It’s critical that the founder not make the mistake of overworking and ignoring their physical health. Trust me on this. It’s almost a badge of honor how much founders work, but I’m of the belief that founder who works 40 hours a week but is well-rested, “clocks out” at night, takes proper vacations (even if just a 3-day “staycation” around the house), eats healthy, and most importantly, sleeps well, will easily outperform a neurotic founder who works 60 hours a week but doesn’t do these things. There’s much more on this in later chapters. 

Remember: It’s not selfish to focus on your health. It’s actually moral and responsible for you to make sure you’re healthy enough to make sure your company survives and thrives, especially when others are counting on you. 

Mental Health 

Taking care of your mental health is as critical as your physical health (perhaps more). One thing I’ve noticed is how many of the “rock star” entrepreneurs and successful people I admire have worked on their mental game as much as their physical game. 

In the book Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss, nearly 80% of the successful people he interviewed have some form of meditation or relaxation practice. Arnold Schwarzenegger and billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio have credited mindfulness meditation for much of their success. Being able to calm your mind is an incredibly valuable skill and has been a game changer for me personally. I list resources on this in the Chapter Resources. 

Another aspect of mental health that affects a lot of founders is “imposter syndrome.” Imposter syndrome is very common among many high-performing people, and is where you feel like a fraud, feel that you don’t know what you’re doing, and fear that you’ll be exposed as a fake. 

Trust me, this is very common and comes from the fact that you’re usually pushing yourself to learn new things as you grow your skills. Life and business never provides 100% certainty. When I learned that many world-changing geniuses and entrepreneurs also felt like this, it was an enormous relief. 

One interesting thing is that pretty much nobody fully knows what they’re doing, and while that might be terrifying (my first thought: what about pilots!), it’s actually pretty relieving. By the way, pilots have lots of training and sophisticated help via a backup pilot, air traffic controllers, weather, and flight software, so as we discuss later, having systems and a team you trust will help in your startup journey. 

A lot has also been written recently about loneliness and depression among founders. I’d be lying if I said that these things have never affected me or founders I know. If you’re a founder, you’re probably going to encounter times where you feel absolutely alone and nobody else really understands or cares, even your best friends and family. It’s not that they don’t want to help; it’s that they likely can’t possibly understand your specific situation at this time, and that’s totally normal.

Connecting with other founders locally and online is a great way to overcome loneliness. There are now so many communities, organizations, Facebook groups, Twitter personalities, and more that the “startup ecosystem” is now very big and supportive. In the resources section of this chapter, I list some great resources for connecting with fellow founders that can make this journey easier. Actually, one of the reasons I’ve structured this book in such a systematic manner is to overcome a major reason for depression: being overwhelmed and not knowing what to do next.

Hopefully, by breaking down this process into bite-size chunks, we can take some of the overwhelm out of the process. Taking care of your physical health is a big part of fighting depression. Finally, never be ashamed to admit you’re depressed to your doctor, friends and family, and get the help you need. 

This was an excerpt from our book Startups Made Simple: How to Start, Grow and Systemize Your Dream Business. Learn more about the book here or see our previous excerpts here.

Below is an excerpt from Part One of our book Startups Made Simple: How to Start, Grow and Systemize Your Dream Business. Learn more about the book here.  

“I see entrepreneurial efforts often fail but good entrepreneurs don’t fail.” – Naval Ravikant, founder of AngelList

Why do we start with the founder habits, skills, and traits that I call the Founder Superpowers? Because these have proven to be the most obvious determining factors of success in starting a business. Highly effective founders can make even mediocre ideas work and bad teams more effective. It’s why venture capitalists and others keep shoving piles of cash at the same people over and over: These people have a set of skills that continually deliver results.

Habits and skills, however, can be learned, and through my research over the years, there is a core set of skills that will definitely improve your odds for success. Don’t worry if you don’t have all of these right now (and I would never insinuate I have all of these). People succeed all the time without some or even most of these skills. However, they are usually very good at one or more of these and have a cofounder, team, or at least an assistant that compensates for a lack of any of these skills. (Or they simply learn them on the fly like most of us.) Think of all of these as a “talent stack” as Dilbert’s Scott Adams likes to say; the better you get at each one adds value because they all work together.

The Superpowers

I group these superpowers in four broad categories:

Energy:

• Superpower #1: Health
• Superpower #2: Perseverance
• Superpower #3: Optimism
• Superpower #4: Momentum

Vision:

• Superpower #5: Clear Vision
• Superpower #6: Clear Goals
• Superpower #7: Product Obsession

Execution:

• Superpower #8: Agency Mindset
• Superpower #9: Resourcefulness
• Superpower #10: Personal Productivity
• Superpower #11: Good Decisions
• Superpower #12: Problem Solving

Leadership:

• Superpower #13: Good Communication Skills
• Superpower #14: Accountability Mindset
• Superpower #15: Team Development and Motivation
• Superpower #16: Courage to be Disliked

These categories might sound like an oversimplification, but think about it—if you have enough Energy, you can work very hard on whatever you put your mind to for as long as necessary and persist through tough times. If you have a clear Vision, then you can imagine a clear future and something great that people will want. If you are great at Execution, then you can get things done, including implementing your Vision. Now combine all this with Leadership and the ability to get a team to go along and get things done, then you’re basically unstoppable in life (not just business).

Note that these could also easily be called the Employee Superpowers in many regards, so developing these skills in your team is a great way to build a great company. You can make a team of highly competent, entrepreneurial, mini-CEOs.

In Part Three, I provide a checklist for you to rate yourself (and your co-founders or team might consider doing this) on these Superpowers, which should help you not only improve in areas where you are weak but focus on areas where you are strong.

This was an excerpt from our book Startups Made Simple: How to Start, Grow and Systemize Your Dream Business. Learn more about the book here or see our previous excerpts here.