Think about your biggest goal.
What if to realize it, you had to essentially hand it over to a bunch of other people, and hope they would be able to make it come true? What if you had to hope they would understand your vision, your love and passion for it – and feel those same things for it themselves?
How would you feel knowing they didn’t? Would you get tired of defending your dream, trying to re-sell the vision, over-and-over-and-over, to the people who were supposed to see it through?
How would it feel knowing that you didn’t really have control over the outcome; that you could plan, and prepare, and lead, and work, but you would end up having to watch how it played out, based on what was done by others to all your efforts?
How would it feel going home to your family at night – the ones all of this is for and who are depending on your goal’s success - after a day where one of the people you trusted with it expressed criticism, disregarded your plans, or acted carelessly?
Maybe you had to dip into your family’s personal savings for things necessary to the realization of your goal. How would it feel watching those things get wasted or broken – or not even used? How would it feel to hear the people you pay to use them complain about their quality?
How would you handle days where your dreams were costing you and your family so much money that you stressed and worried constantly? How would you reassure your family that this will all work out and be worth it if you all just stick things out for a little longer?
How would you feel leaving your family on a day like that, coming into the place where your goal is being worked on, and then spending the rest of the day there listening to people complain that your goal isn’t worth all this?
Back when your dream was still a daydream, you used to get excited imagining how many lives would be blessed by what you were going to accomplish. And those lives included the people who would be helping you to make it all happen. You pictured their happiness, dedication, and gratitude. You knew you would not let this thing fail, because it would be for them too. Now you lay awake at night because it’s not just your family depending on this to succeed; their families are too.
How would you feel knowing that as much as you might want to hide out under your covers, you can’t because everyone is counting on you?
How would you respond to that type of pressure?
Would you throw in the towel, let your biggest dream crumble? Or would you have to decide every morning that you’ll be done with this misery tomorrow, but for now you’ll give it one more day?
This is what I think about when I’m tempted to complain. No matter where the company and its founder are now, or wherever you think they are now, there’s a lot behind the scenes that you won’t ever see or hear about, the start of it all wasn’t easy, and the start can last a very long time.
- Best Job Ever, coming in 2020