Nov 18, 2020

8 min read

Your Bad Habits Are Killing Your Startup!

I am currently five years into my first startup journey, and over that time, I have learned a lot of valuable lessons and made a lot of mistakes. One learning stands out above all of the rest, but I didn’t understand it until a year ago.

I was failing to invest in the most critical asset that I have, myself, and my bad habits were killing my business.

Self-awareness is an essential trait in a leader.

I meet quite a few other founders through my journey, often at events, and I have short conversations with them about what they do, and we often discuss challenges that we’ve run into along the way.

My internal thought processes during these discussions can vary from “wow, you are amazing/delusional” to “that idea is great/awful” and most commonly “I have no idea how you will ever make money from that”.

There is a common trait that I see in the ones that impress me; they understand themselves and their businesses. They show a level of self-awareness that those on the other end of the scale lack.

I want to think that I have an adequate level of self-awareness, like many other business skills; it is something you can train through self-reflection and introspection. Deciding to address my bad habits led me to the best idea I’ve ever had for both myself and my business.

Stopping my bad habits and investing in myself is the best idea since starting my company.

“The most important investment you can make is in yourself.” — Warren Buffett

It is quite logical if you think about it. Your investors have chosen to invest in you, your idea and your ability to execute; they see you as a top performer, so shouldn’t you focus yourself on exceeding those expectations.

Investment in yourself takes many forms; in my case, it was taking control of my diet, exercise regime and making sure I was physically able to deliver on the promise I showed to my investors.

It requires a mindset shift to go from “I should go to the gym” to “I will invest in myself”. I’m not talking about spending time getting abs, though that could be an investment if you are running a fitness business focused on Instagram. In my case, it was more about ensuring that I had the stamina to deliver and was presenting the best possible face for my business to new investors and customers.

I had ballooned from 280 pounds to over 370 pounds while running my company. No investor wants to put money into someone that they feel could have a heart attack tomorrow. Similarly, customers will question whether they want to work with you.

I had to change.

Commit to stopping your bad habits and invest your time and money in yourself

“The greatest wealth is health.” — Virgil (Roman Poet)

Your investment comes in the form of two primary commodities, your time and money. The most expensive of these as a Startup founder is your time, every minute that you spend has an opportunity cost.

Money is the easier of the two commodities to deal with; fortunately investing in yourself does not have to be expensive. Any money you spend should act precisely like VC money; it should be a multiplier or reduce your time cost (treat this synonymously with “time to market”).

When investing in my body, my main time cost is working out, planning food, planning exercise, buying food, washing clothes, cooking and eating. I can spend money to reduce the amount of time each of these takes, except for a core amount of time to spend working out.

The chief financial cost is the essential equipment (read: clothes, shoes etc.), access to specialist equipment (read: gym membership), access to a trainer, reducing time cost and better quality food.

As with any investment you make as a Startup founder, you are trying to balance financial cost, time cost, risk and reward.

I choose to invest my money in reducing time cost by hiring a personal trainer for two sessions a week. Through this investment, I can ensure that I stick with my investment and reduce my planning load. I carefully plan my food which helps me reduce the amount of time cooking and buying food. I chose a gym that plans my sessions for me, so the only time commitment is turning up for an hour.

Taking these small steps can help make it easier to build new habits and continue with your investment for long-term success. Incidentally, I am now around 200 pounds, so my new good habits are paying off.

My next investment, education

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” — Benjamin Franklin

A crucial part of choosing the right investment in yourself is having the self-awareness of what you can improve. As Startup founders, we need to be confident about everything that we say, even when we’re not entirely sure of it.

It is far easier to speak from a position of knowledge than ignorance, and education is the key differentiator between those two states.

From working in a knowledge-based industry where we develop software and provide cybersecurity solutions, it is essential to have the education to back with up. Without this, we would soon demonstrate that we don’t know the subject matter because our customers are experts as well.

So the next commitment I am making is to improve my level of education. I’m starting with one of the most respected cybersecurity qualifications (CISSP), and I’ll look at maybe an MBA or similar as a 2021 goal.

In summation, take time to reflect on yourself and your business. Build your self-awareness and then take steps to invest in yourself. Only through careful self-reflection and honesty can you help identify your bad habits that are killing your company.

You can address those bad habits by looking to form new, good habits. Take the time to invest in yourself, both your body and your education; it will pay dividends in the long run and increase your chance of success.

Your Bad Habits Are Killing Your Startup!

Self-awareness is an essential trait in a leader.

Stopping my bad habits and investing in myself is the best idea since starting my company.

Commit to stopping your bad habits and invest your time and money in yourself

My next investment, education

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