9 lessons running taught me about running a startup

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Since becoming an avid runner and launching my startup, Tripovo, last year, I can’t help but notice that entrepreneurship and running have a lot in common. Here’s what I’ve learnt.

1. Start with baby steps

You don’t wake up one day and run 28k (well, perhaps some super-fit person could do, but I certainly didn’t!). You start small, with achievable goals – you see how far you can run in 20 minutes, then 30 minutes, then set yourself bigger goals: 5km, 7km, 10km… up to my new PB (apologies for the fitnesss language, personal best) of 28km yesterday.

You get my message – it takes time, so for the startups who dream of becoming unicorns (and it is an admirable dream), my advice would be not to make it your immediate goal as you’ll only become dispirited. But by all means, keep it – my running goal is an ultramarathon, although I’m pretty sure I’ve got some time before that ever happens.

2. Take pride in your achievements

As you hit those goals, make sure you celebrate them – hang those medals up, post those pictures on FB and Instagram and annoy the hell out of everyone. After all, if you won’t celebrate hitting your own PBs along the way as a startup, who will? (Besides your mum – she’s always your biggest cheerleader). Plus, it’s great for team spirit.

3.  Don’t beat yourself up if you’re having a bad day

There will be some days when you just can’t run. When the thought of getting out of bed at 6am, or 5.30am on a Sunday morning will kill you (thanks humid Southeast Asia!). When you can barely run one kilometre without getting a stitch or feeling bored. Accept it and move on. One bad day in the life of a startup is normal – it’s a rollercoaster of emotions starting a new business.

Caveat: if it’s every day, then it’s time to start questioning why you’re doing what you are.

4. Your game plan is key

Just like how you need to plan for your race day – what kit to bring, what to eat, what water stations you’re going to stop at along the way – so too planning is crucial for your startup. What’s your runway? What’s Plan A? B? C? If you don’t have a plan yet, make one – even if it’s a short-term one.

Despite that, though…

5. The unexpected will happen

On race day, anything can happen. You can trip and injure yourself, or have one of those tummy-trouble moments in the middle of the course. Even the best-laid plans go awry, so when it inevitably does happen for your startup, go with the flow and try to make the best of it. As they say, expect the unexpected.

6. Sometimes just showing up pays off

Starting to doubt that your startup is ever going to make it? Sometimes a chance meeting could be all it takes to gain that momentum and take off. But if you never try, you’ll never know – just like how you could be the only entrant in your category and win just by finishing what you started.

7. Teamwork works

Yesterday I ran a 50km relay race with one teammate (yes, it was as painful as it sounds and I can barely move from my chair right now). One of my key motivators was the knowledge that she was depending on me to finish my lap – and the same for her, she didn’t want to let me down by not finishing. Instead of walking some of the laps, which we’d planned to do, we ran as much as we could, pushing ourselves, and achieved so much more together than we could have done individually.

Your startup likely isn’t just you, reader, but at least a co-founder, an intern, a team member. Can just one person make a startup successful? It’s happened before, but the odds are against you. Working with others pushes you to better, greater, higher heights – which is what you need to make it big.

8. There will be pain

You’ll reach a point when you’re running and you’ll hit your pain threshold. Your knee starts to ache, your calves start spasming, your feet can’t take the pounding on the tarmac anymore. When it gets to that stage, you need to decide whether you can keep going – and unless it’s something serious (please, don’t run on an injury), now it’s all down to mind over matter.

9. And there will be euphoria