What no one tells you about being a founder

Recently, I was a speaker at a couple of entrepreneurship summits. In both places, the audience asked me: What is it about being a founder that people do not speak about?

I thought this is an important question and should be discussed openly often - 

1. Being a founder is like a superhero with a cape - Looks glamorous from the outside. But it is tough and lonely from the inside. You can control things, but many things happen around you that you did not predict. It requires you to accept what is happening now, know that life is not fair, and keep moving forward. 
2. The most important work will be your work on yourself - The company’s culture, mindset, and for that matter, mood and optimism will be dependent on yours. Ben Horowitz in “Hard things about hard things” says as a founder, the time gap between your highest highs and lowest lows is 20 minutes. It is true. Founders oscillate between being unicorns to dying emotions in a matter of hours. The work you take on discovering inner you will pay off hugely in guiding you through this journey. 
3. You will have to call your best version in tough times - At times, you will feel that everyone has left you - and you are on a long journey alone. At these times, you have to call the best version of yourself. Proactively seek help and build an infrastructure you can rely on. No one will do it for you.
4. The grind never ends - I would think we have been on this journey for so long, and why does it still feel at times fragile. I would then remember Tesla was public, and Elon Musk was still fighting not to go bankrupt. The grind never ends when you are in the game. It is by design.
5. You have to be driven by something beyond yourself - Given all of the above, you have to be in this journey because you are driven by something more than you - a desire to prove, a cause, a mission, a problem, a curiosity, love for your team or customers, higher purpose. Something that will wake you up in the morning every day and help you keep going. 

In the end, the reward of learning, growing, and changing the world is so worth it to pursue entrepreneurship. It is the hardest, yet most fulfilling journey one can take on.