We all observe life and try to get the answer: Is life hard or easy? For startup founders, this question comes up often. And after looking closely at their journey, such as work-life balance issues, financial pressure, less time for family, and relationship issues, we can say the simple answer is: Yes.
We all want to know: Is life really hard? First, let us understand what is meant by “hard.” Hard is a term used to describe the complexity of anything. It is the middle point of a problem that is tough to solve.
For example, if you want to make a decision that feels confusing, you are in the middle of a yes or no line—you may want to follow that decision to solve a problem or refrain from it. In a startup founder’s life, these are the moments when decisions about projects, funding, or strategies feel tough. Being in that situation means you're in between middle point of a problem.
Let divide that answer into two parts. Part 1: “Yes” life is hard and part 2: “No.” life is not really hard.
Is life very hard? Following part 1 of this answer: Yes. Life is so hard to solve a problem. If we are in between the middle point of a hard situation and fail to solve it, the answer is yes, life is so hard. Because we are unable to find its solution. So having no solution to problems, we find life is very hard. So we conclude: yes, life is hard.
Now get to part 2 of this answer: “No.” Life is not so hard as we think. For example, Ryan, a startup founder, was unable to raise funding because he couldn’t explain his idea clearly. Next time, he adopted strategies to improve his chances—networking more effectively, sending cold emails to investors, and using a polished narrated pitch deck video to present his idea clearly. By applying these strategies, he reduced the chances of failure in the future.
Falling into the trap of any problem may help us understand the problem more easily, and later we follow such tactics to avoid or minimize the hardness of any problem.
Whenever we experience a hard situation in life, we learn some lesson from it. That lesson helps us fight the same problem in the future by adopting some measures. As we can see in the above example, Ryan understood the core reason of the problem and adopted strategies to handle it.
So the question is: Is the founder’s life hard? The exact answer to that question is “Yes.” Life is really very hard. Everyone’s life is hard. But understanding the hardness of life is easy.
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