Grind chat
GridAKL is home to events designed to connect, inspire and inform the innovation, tech, growth and startup ecosystem in Auckland. We have stunning purpose-built GridAKL spaces to suit all your events; from small and intimate meet-ups to large-scale conferences or exhibitions. Mark Hurley is a previous EY Entrepreneur of the year finalist with over 17 years experience as a founder, executive, director and angel investor. Dentsu Aegis Network acquired little Giant in His new venture is Jasper, a startup that allows investors to purchase fractional ownership in high-quality commercial properties using a fully digitised on-boarding, accreditation and subscription process. If you registered for the previous event your ticket is still valid so no need to purchase a ticket again.
Startup Grind: Fireside chat with Mark Hurley (Jasper & Little Giant)
Mythologically within the world of successful entrepreneurs and business folks is this mirage that one must just muscle hard and power through the difficulties of starting a company as if it be purely a battle of physical measure. Of physical and mental willpower. Three seemingly robotic master mind-minds who changed the direction of humanity by disregarding compassion and executing in robotic efficiency. Yet it is just now, years later, I am seeing the true effects this inspiration has had in Silicon Valley and how these guys really " changed the world.
Plenty good has come from the work of these three men. Deal with no growth for three years? Get rejected times from investors? Toughness and grit are often talked about in partnership with startups and yet somehow it is still vastly underestimated by the thousands who seek quick success and Slack-like growth. Flipping through the event packet, I mapped out my conference.
That seems pretty cool. I circled it as my 1 attend event, even over the oogly and awe worthy names like Ben Horowitz and Safra Katz who canceled for a Trump meeting, unfortunately. I am 23 years old, nearing my prime for tech standards kidding , and I run marketing at a startup in downtown San Francisco.
This was a notable session for me as I have been busy working away like my idols ole' Steve and Elon. What's interesting is that by most standards, I have it easy. My team has never taken on VC funding and our culture actually cares about balance. But actually. Bill Gates never took a day off…. Instead, thoughts of competition, comparison, judgment and high expectation leads to a world of competitions. Walking down the sidewalk all you experience is just a bunch of stupid people!
No one works hard like me! I am not a unique case. I am young and ambitious, I joined the valley afflicted with a ship steered via comparison, expectation, and judgment. Despite being in the land of patience, meditation and mindfulness, it is an affliction that permeates so many of us.
For me, I am thankful that I realized I was being a big crab. All things may be improved. And you can too. So I was really looking forward to the session on mental health for this very reason.
I assumed I'd be one of a few in attendance to the discussion, being a sensitive topic and locked into a world of toughness, I figured everyone else would be off learning and growing their skills instead of working on something silly like sadness and depression! It was packed. Like, packed, packed. The room was bursting at capacity and I just squeezed by the frazzled elderly gatekeeper, snagging a spot behind a wooden bar and coat rack in the back.
The fireside chat was hosted by Khalid Halim of Reboot. The chat was powerful in all of the ways you might imagine it. Khalid Halim was speaking softly and gently, guiding the conversation along as Ben Huh spoke of his experiences as a founder, the ups, and downs of growth.
Getting an investment. Losing it. And still coming out alive. Apparently, this is statistic has been out for years, but I was just hearing it. I was stunned. That was an astounding number to hear. This truly highlighted three things for me. There was something comforting about many people struggling. Not that I want others to struggle, but that there is a united group to it now. It has a tribe appeal and almost normality.
Ben Huh himself talked about a time when he seriously considered suicide. Ben writes about it here on his blog. Ben and Khalid spoke about the importance of identity. Much of the sadness and depression founders go through is because they do not allow their work and their own selves are separated. It is not Andrew is a person and that is his work, but instead founders view their work as a physical representation and extension of their cognition.
For this, we perceive bad press articles as personal attacks. Loss of funding as personal incompetence and shattered trust. I am not even a founder and I can feel the pain and the struggles of these pivotal moments. They go all-in. It seems fully identifying with your work and being so deeply and passionately embedded into is the only way.
On my end, I have been working diligently for months to improve my mental foundation. There are a few things I have personally picked up on my journey and resources I would like to share that may help and have helped me view this topic not as weak but courageous.
These are resources that have helped me love working a balanced week and become impassioned with life. The life of today. Not tomorrow. I was scared to better myself thinking that if I became happy and fulfilled with today. I have struggled for so long aiming to be perfect. I agree high-quality work is important in your job. But there is a difference between good work and over optimizing your life.
I personally had scheduled out my days Sunday - Saturday, by the minute. In my mind, it was the only way to maximize my day. I have actively worked on being imperfect. The topic of meditation is a well-beaten horse. I used Headspace to learn the patterns and habits of meditation. The founder Andy talks you through noticing and enjoying small things while you meditate, like sounds of your house utilities running and the feeling of the shirt on your back.
I have applied this idea of intense, intimate focus to all things I do now. One example is by stepping away from my work at lunch and really enjoying my meals. No phone, no computer, just me and my lunch getting intimate. As I shared above, I have been massively afflicted with the comparison which hamstrung my happiness and made me crabby.
Whether it be Bill Gates or the kid across the street, someone was doing it better. This is so poisonous. After reaching so many accomplishments, I have had to train myself to love the difficulty of training and just being the best version of me. A powerful book for this is Mindset by Carol Dweck. This book frequently makes it on top 10 lists for most likely to change your life forever. This is the mental foundation that will bring a fruitful life for you as long as you live.
Worth it. He suggests that pursuing a life of endless happiness is not appropriate. Happiness is an emotion and full of movement.
It will never be infinite. By expecting this, we actually compound the difficulty of the hard times because we expect ourselves to be happy. Instead, he suggests, seek fulfillment and purpose. A cause or a thing in life that brings you meaning to your suffering. Nothing is wrong with suffering and working hard. Just do it for the right reasons. I am not here to be the expert with all of the answers. I am the last person I ever thought would be excited to attend a session at a conference on the topic of mental health.
I am, however, someone actively in the process of rewiring 23 years of cognitive hardware. You may be in a much darker place than I have been. Whatever the reason is, you have my vote of confidence on these resources. Tim Ferris writes about Suicide. The Emotional Startup Curve.
Kip - a modern therapy start-up. SF only The Jung Institute - low-cost therapy sessions from post-graduate students in training. I write about big discoveries. Some of these may already be discovered, but they are news to me.
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Mythologically within the world of successful entrepreneurs and business folks is this mirage that one must just muscle hard and power through the difficulties of starting a company as if it be purely a battle of physical measure.
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The Conversation We Keep Avoiding
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