The older you get and the more of your business fail, the more used to the struggle you get. It becomes a part of you rather than something external. Every decision will now have the struggle as one of the deciding factors. There is no way to remove it, but experience does provide ways to soothe the effects on you. I'm overly negative with every business. Can't help it. I refuse to even think about anything succeeding too much. Dreaming is allowed, but it must now hold hands with actionable plans. There is no sense in just dreaming, things must also appear to be possible.

One of the things that people here should understand is that a startup/business is hard. Its not a landing page, or a cute/catchy angle at some niche. No. Those are product features. The business is you. Whatever resides between your ears. When they get going and stuff doesnt being to happen as they planned you can notice what really resides in their minds. A lot of these so called smart people are just full of doubts and have a lot of self-esteem issues. They start feeling less and less because they can't reason why their business is failing. Its horrible to watch and experience. I went through that numerous times until I understood that a business is not logical. It doesn't add up. Never does. You can't approach it as it were some mathematical formua. Not happening. Its a living thing, and it is driven by emotion, feelings, and things that we are not usually comfortable dealing with. The struggle hits that right in the center, and that is why so much starry-eyed dreamers get hit so hard. They were not emotionally ready to deal with startup. Nothing prepares you for a startup like a startup itself. In order to build up some resistance to the struggle you just have to try and build more businesses. Struggle a bit more.

As an amateur marathonist, father, and husband I can tell you that the stuggle is just part of life. Every day that I go to the track the struggle is right there with me. It tries to convince me to stop because I'm tired and out of breath. But I won't stop. Not today. The struggle will try and hold me back fron running faster. Not happening. It will focus on reminding me of the pain I'm feeling. I say bring it. The struggle is also hard when your kid is in a hospital getting some treatment. When she is sick and you can't do anything about it. Prayer doesn't work, and the only thing in your mind is will she come out of this all right? When the kid goes to school you dont know if she will have a good day or scrape her knees. The struggle makes you think about if she will make friends or will she be a loner like her dad. There is also the marriage struggle. Did I marry the right person? Will this fail? Why wont my partner do X or Y? Am I being good to them? Am I doing the right things? Will this end up in divorce? Those are all part of the struggle in marriage. Everyone goes through that. The way I deal with it is that I made a choice to get married, and not a choice to get married and get divorced if something happens. You stick to your guns no matter what. Its what is missing from this world.

Dear young startup person reading this. If you want to deal with the struggle just pick up the phone, and try to sell something through it. Struggle to make that sale. Get your hands dirty. DOnt sit back and tweak your website to look right, go out and sell something. Get used to the word no. As it will be the word you will most hear while in business. Go and read the lean startup book and put a learning system into place. Try and systemize as much as you can in your business. Make it so that most business decisions come from knowledge and not fron gut instinct. But realize that your mind will take a daily pounding. Its all right. Rocky got his shit beat out of him, but he still got up and kept fighting. Like Rocky says: "Its not how hard you get hit, but how hard you get hit and still move forward." Life is about stumbling down to your knees. Picking yourself up. Dusting yourself. Putting your head up high, and taking another step forward. Remember that winning is a habit. Its a habit that you make by giving the best of yourself at every moment and not doing half assed stuff. Keep that in mind. Above all, stop and smell the flowers. Most of my ideas and solutions have appeared while having fun. Don't ever stop having fun. Ever.

Sorry for the long post.