The Messy Middle
Trading time for money, and money for time
As I experience building startups with world-class teams, I am becoming more aware of the messy middle. I longed to experience this messy middle and it is teaching me valuable lessons about people, myself and life in general.
The concept of the messy middle is well captured by Scott Belsky in his book of the same name. He talks about how society shows up mainly for the start and finish but doesn’t tend to remember all the ups and downs in the middle which are the parts that truly count.
I had read ‘The Messy Middle’ before starting my company, and now, as an entrepreneur, I am revisiting it with a fresh perspective. I find myself noticing different insights this time around. Surprisingly, despite the wealth of business wisdom in the book, I was particularly drawn to a chapter near the end titled “We are so willing to trade time for money when we are young, and money for time as we age”.
When you’re building a company, time seems to fly by so quickly that everything becomes a blur. The early days, filled with stress and often devoid of immediate results, can skew your perspective, making money seem more significant than time. This is the messy middle and the only way to get to the other end is to experience and endure it.
I’ll leave you with a few thought provoking quotes from the chapter. Happy reading!
The ultimate achievement is being able to spend your time as you wish.
We lose time when we let others spend it for us.
When you find yourself distracted by technology or some other preoccupation while with your children or loved ones, pretend you’re forty years older and longing to have just one more moment with these people at this time in your life. It helps.
The more you value your time, the more pressure you will feel to spend it wisely, and the more you’ll struggle with these parts of life that have no shortcuts.
You see, life’s frictions have another purpose aside from consuming your time: They make portions of your life more memorable. For an experience to be memorable, it must have friction.
This is a post about ecosystem resources which was also posted on LinkedIn to benefit global entrepreneurs. If you’re building a global startup or have global aspirations, get in touch. Email me at mk@gex.vc or leave a comment if you’d like to exchange ideas.