In the ever-evolving conversation about the talent landscape, we always cycle through headlines about job-hopping. Millennials quickly earned a reputation for job-hopping, but early data shows that Gen Z employees are more than twice as likely to leave their current job in the next month—so the trend continues.
As a founder and investor, a commitment to sticking it out for the long haul is integral to success. I think we sometimes underestimate the worth of putting in the time. If you put your head down and work on something for a decade, I firmly believe you will create tremendous value.
There are so many amazing stories of founders who put in year after year of hard work and found success far down the line. We often think there’s a moment when things spike (see: hockey stick growth), but sometimes it just looks like incremental growth getting stronger each and every year.
NerdWallet is a perfect example of this. Tim Chen launched the company in 2009, but it was five years before they raised any outside capital and about 12 years from launch to IPO. In a crowded market with lots of financial institutions spending marketing dollars, they simply focused on creating great content and attracting customers. As Chen put it, “Every year, it’s been the same blocking and tackling, trying to do the basics right [and] tell people about it. It’s been a slow build from there.”
So if stick-to-itiveness is an underappreciated skill, how do you figure out how to improve your ability to focus for the long term? These are some tried-and-true tactics that can help anyone make it through the speed bumps that are inevitable on the long road to building something of value.
Lean on friends and family
When I was first starting LearnVest, I always joked that my then-boyfriend now-husband could tell what kind of a day I was having by whether or not he found me on the couch, cookie in hand. I could not have stuck it out without a strong support system around me, starting with my family but extending to my friends, too. It was critical to have a support system of both people in similar roles who could commiserate and people who were so outside the entrepreneurial world that they could provide a fresh perspective.
I love the approach John Berkowitz, founder of OJO, takes. He considers his startup a family business and simply views his family (including his young children) as part of the team. They see his stressful days, but also his celebratory ones, too.
Maintain perspective
Navigating a tremendously hard challenge at work is mentally and emotionally draining. It can feel devastating when a sale you’ve been working on for months falls through at the eleventh hour or when a product launch keeps getting delayed.
But this week’s problem is going to be just a blip when you know you’re committed for the next decade. If you can find a way to get through this moment in time, there will be so many more weeks to close the deal and launch the product.
Founders have shared all sorts of creative ways to maintain perspective with me, like reading books about wartime to remembering that your struggles really aren’t that bad. Or like Jason Boehmig, founder of Ironclad, you can find perspective in poetry. He relies on a poem by the Latin poet Terence, which translates to “I am a man, I consider nothing that is human alien to me.” This short poem acts as a reminder that you can understand any other human being’s experience and gain perspective by doing so.
Find the humor
Building a company or leading a team takes so much out of you, but at the end of the day, it should also be a source of joy in your life. My friend and fellow entrepreneur Julia Hartz of Eventbrite often leans on humor as a coping mechanism to get through tough times. She reminds us that we can always find some humor in whatever hard stuff we face—which brings us back to the first principle here: You need friends and family to laugh with.
Whatever you are doing, whether it’s navigating a job or starting a company, sticking with it is one of the most powerful tools you have and one that is largely within your own control. If you can harness these tips for finding longevity, I have no doubt that success will follow.
Alexa von Tobel, CFP, is the founder and managing partner of Inspired Capital.
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