The startup world is becoming more and more mainstream. More people want to be part of it because it’s seen as cool, because they want to become billionaires, or because some of the most influential people of our time are entrepreneurs.

If being an explorer was cool in the 1400s, a painter in the 1800s, and a scientist in the 1900s, today it’s cool to be an entrepreneur.

And on one hand, that’s great. It encourages more people to build companies, create jobs, and bring new products to the market.

But on the other hand, it also attracts people who are more excited about having status and money than about building great products that help others.

It’s like wanting to be the best student in class. You want that top spot so badly that you start cheating, sucking up to teachers, and looking for every possible shortcut.

Meanwhile, there’s another kid who’s genuinely interested in what he’s learning. He’s watching documentaries and reading books all day because he wants to understand how things work.

And he keeps doing it when there’s no exam coming up, no grade to earn, and no one watching.

How do you compete with that guy?

That’s exactly what happens in startups, too. And it happened to me.

You start looking for shortcuts. When you launch your product on X, you ask people for reposts or pay for them. You look for a co-founder because you don’t want to sit down and work your ass off. You see your friends raising $5 million or $10 million, and you start thinking that raising money is the goal.

That’s when I realised I was losing sight of what mattered.

Your customers won’t pay you more because you have a co-founder. They won’t use your product every day because you have 20,000 followers on LinkedIn. They don’t care whether you raised at a $10 million valuation or a $30 million one.

They care about how much your product helps them, how quickly it improves, and how fast you respond when they have a problem.

At an early-stage startup, all the rest just eats up your time, takes up space in your head, and makes you angry.

Still working on that.