"It Must Be Nice"

If I had to put money on it, I would bet that at some point in our lives, we have all been guilty of  looking at someone super fit and thinking It must be nice to be them! I would also bet that we are all guilty of willfully ignoring the hard work that it took them to get there. Muscles do not just spontaneously grow. In order to get in shape and stay in shape, you have to put in a lot of hard, uncomfortable work. The next time you see someone who looks fantastic, think about the 5am workouts, the slices of pizza they did not eat, and how sore they probably are after every workout. When you consider the work put in, the outcome feels earned. 

I would argue that the same is true of entrepreneurial success. 

I recently sold a company for more than a billion dollars. It was an incredible accomplishment, and it was a public one. I have had multiple people approach me about how nice it must be to have achieved so much success. They are not wrong, it is incredibly nice, but it was also incredibly hard-won. Just like with fitness, people tend to envy the end result without considering the process. Starting a business involves a lot of un-fun activities. When I started the company that recently sold, I put my own money (and by extension, my family’s money) on the line. I have two young children. The stress that came along with making a bet on myself was astronomical. There were sleepless nights, moments when I thought we might lose our house, and quite a bit of under-the-collar sweat as obstacle after obstacle appeared. I had to make really challenging decisions daily, and I became responsible for people’s livelihoods. When people say it must be nice, I can’t help but think to myself It’s nice now, but it was not always nice. 

It is important to understand that if we want to achieve impressive things, we have to put in the labor, There is no substitute for hard work, and there is no cheating it. If you want to be in an enviable position, roll up your sleeves and do it because no one else is going to do it for you. It is not easy, but if it were easy everyone would do it. 
Instead of thinking to yourself It must be nice, go out and make it nice for yourself. If I can do it, you can too.