Startup Founders Don't Sleep

As I'm writing this, it's 1:34 A.M. on a Tuesday. I'm working right now, and my guess is most people aren't.

It's not that I'm not tired – I am. It's not that I can't sleep – I can. I'm working at 1:34 in the morning because that's what I do. I'm a startup Founder, and I don't sleep.

Startup Founders don't sleep because the work of a startup is never done. Many years from now, when this startup idea turns into a big company with lots of managers and bureaucracy, then I can sleep. As it stands now, there's too much work to do.

My Only Hurdle is Me

Unlike a big company -- where my extra hours really only benefit the company itself, in a startup, these hours benefit me directly. Every extra hour I put in, every extra step that I take, converts my vision into a reality that much faster. In many ways, the only hurdle to my growth is me.

The extra hours I put in tonight working on our marketing plan means our marketing team will get our next ad campaign launched a week earlier. That means our customers will show up a week sooner. That means we'll get paid faster. That means we'll be able to hire more people and increase our marketing spend more quickly. We'll get bigger, faster.

I could go to sleep now, or I could stay up and accelerate my vision by a week. I think I'll stay up.

My Competition Sleeps

I surely hope my competition likes to sleep. Heck, I hope the Founder I'm competing with is a total narcoleptic.

When he wakes up from a great night's rest and hops in the shower to get ready, I'll already be two hours into my day. By the time he gets around to reviewing his calendar for the day, I'll be half way through my task list and setting my goals for tomorrow.

When he clocks out at 5:30 to go home and have dinner, I'll be ordering lunch and blowing past my task list for the second day a little bit early. And while he's watching late night television and dozing off, I'll be already working on the next plan for tomorrow.

Sleep tight, buddy. You're about to have plenty of time to rest.

I Stay Up for Everyone Else

I know that even the most motivated team members of a startup company have other things to do. While I'm totally infatuated with a vision to build a great company, they are more infatuated with their own lives and goals. Fair enough.
So I need to lose a little sleep for them, too.

I need to stay up later to make sure we're thinking of all the possible opportunities for our sales team. I need to review our balance sheet one more time to see if we can squeeze some additional capital out of our bank. I need to think way ahead of our team to ensure our strategy remains aggressive.

By the time my team wakes up in the morning they'll have some new ideas for this week. But I'll have new ideas for next week, the week after, and the week after that. I stay awake because if I'm not spending more time and energy on our growth, no one else will.

The Market Won't Let Me Sleep

Of course I could nod off for a while. I could decide that it's time to slow down and take a rest. My friends have been saying I'm working too hard, I've got permanent circles under my eyes, and I haven't taken a vacation in far too long.
Yet every time I try to slow down and rest, something keeps waking me back up. It's like an alarm clock attached to my senses. It's called “The Market”, and the damn thing won't let me sleep a wink!

The Market is a constant reminder that every time I want to slow down and relax, there is someone else out there who won't. That alarm clock in my head isn't the ringing of a bell, it's the loss of a big contract to a competitor. It's my EVP that just got hired away to a faster growing company. It's the new competitive product that's sweeter than ours.

The Market will move as quickly as guys like me will push it. Like Gordon Gekko said in Wall Street – “Money never sleeps!” – so neither do I.

I'll Sleep When I’m Dead

This self-instigated sleep deprivation can end right now. I can get off this hamster wheel and leave it all behind me. I can go back to getting nine hours of sleep, relaxing on the weekends, and playing it safe.

But that's not what I'm built to do. I'm a startup Founder, and I don't sleep, I build. If I stop now, there will be someone else to replace me – maybe you. So I'll be staying up now and sleeping when I'm dead.

As for you? Sleep tight.

Discuss this article with Wil in the Go BIG Forums.

Wil Schroter is the Founder and CEO of the Go BIG Network, the largest network of startup companies and entrepreneurs at www.goBIGnetwork.com. He is also the author of the new book “Go BIG or Go HOME”