Long Way to Run

This past Sunday, I ran the New York City Marathon. As I set out crossing the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, I thought of just how much running a marathon and starting a company are alike and, of course, how much they are not at all like. Here are just a few of my thoughts.

• Alike – You spend hours upon hours preparing for that one day that you will “go live” or run the marathon. Your family and friends watch you doing all this prep work – working late hours – or getting up really on Saturday morning to run 20 miles – and wonder what is wrong with you.
• Different – You may get a headache from working on your startup company but you won’t get sore legs.
• Alike – To truly be successful you need to surround yourself with the right people. In a startup company this includes your business partner(s), the staff you hire, the staff you contract, and if you are lucky, the first few customers. In the marathon it is finding the right group to train with and then recruiting the right race support people.
• Different – When you finally launch your company, chances are that you are not going to have a crowd of millions of people in the streets cheering for you… but, if you can manage to get that – go for it – make sure to invite me.
• Alike – At about 7/8 of the way through either the marathon or starting a company you may be overwhelmed by the stress of it all and violently puke up a stomach full of Gatorade and water.
• Different – The results from getting your company started are not going to be posted the next day.
• Alike – The devil is in the details! Making sure you have the right shoes and your lucky socks is very important on marathon day. Making sure you have the right PowerPoint presentation is also very important on the day you present to investors. The right shoes and lucky socks couldn’t hurt either.
• Different – Once you start the marathon – it is all up to you to run your best and have a good time. Launching and running your company is a team sport.
• Alike – If all goes well, you will be rewarded handsomely for undertaking either endeavor.
• Different – If you are successful, you’re going to pay lots of taxes on your startup company. You won’t pay taxes on your marathon unless you win.
• Alike – After starting your company or finishing a marathon you’ll have plenty of war stories to tell your friends who will be very interested to hear almost every detail.
  

This list might not be all-encompassing. Some might not even agree with some or all of it. You’ll have to cut me some slack. My legs are starting to tighten up and I’m ready to get a good night’s sleep. But please write me if you have any insights. BTW – I finished in 3:39 and I had a GREAT time!


ETJ