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182 6 SECRETS TO STARTUP SUCCESS

and stress and inescapable responsibility, where many businesses are
made or broken. Your entrepreneurial stamina and determination will
occasionally seem like the only thread holding your venture together.
In these times, the most vital questions have little to do with your
business model and everything to do with you: How much gas is left in
your tank? How do you refuel and recover? Are you moving with enthusiasm
and a sense of purpose or with growing weight on your shoulders?

In this section, I will offer a few final thoughts on how to perform
and persevere through good times and bad in pursuit of your venture-
level goals. While we know that certain entrepreneurs are more hard-
wired for persistence than others (see personality dimensions covered
in Chapter Three), I will focus here on strategies available to all
founders, regardless of core personality. Healthy entrepreneurial
stamina is not just about the refusal to quit, an attitude that can cause
stubbornness and attachment to nonviable concepts, but is grounded
in ongoing learning and improvement. Four principles can help you
to increase your own staying power for the good of yourself and your
venture:

1. Feed your fire.

2. Focus on achievable goals.

3. Balance performance with recovery.

4. Persevere without attaching.

FEED YOUR FIRE

As a kid, I loved waking up to the sound of distant lawn mowers drift-
ing through my window, a signal that the weekend had arrived. Sat-
urdays were packed with possibility. I would hop out of bed and
spend whole days in pursuit of activities of my own choosing, playing
“homerun derby” with my buddies, teaching myself to high-jump at
a nearby athletic field, or listening to my older brothers’ record col-
lections while studying album art and memorizing lyrics. Every few
months, I rotated to a newly immersive activity. One season it was
basketball, the next music, then reading, fishing, or golf. In every case,
I loved what I was doing. I loved the exploration, the striving, and the

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