Discuss: Don’t be happy if you want a successful startup

Happiness or contentment is a good thing. But for business, it’s a killer.

An entrepreneur who works 100+ hours a week needs to have a reason. There’s usually some form of discontentment at the heart of it: desperation for money, desperation to prove to the next person he/she is better, desperation to prove someone wrong, desperation to prove to themselves they can do something, or desperation to help their family.

I say desperation because that’s the attitude needed to give up most things in your life for a cause. You don’t give up 100+ hours a week for something you casually want.

Now if the person has a higher cause they’re obsessed with, then the hard work could stem from that. But that’s rare.

Can a business be a success without the hard work? Sure, but it just won’t be as big as if the hard work were put in.

The close-to-billionaire I know well, who I’ve mentioned in other posts, once advised a family member of mine that if you want to do really well in business, you need to be so obsessed that you think about it while you are having sex.

I think there is a lot of truth in that.

But if you’re content, that just won’t happen.

This was first published on Quora.

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