Quest for Validation

Have you ever heard something off-hand and realized that it was a significant truth? Maybe you were walking by a TV and heard a commentator, or perhaps you were walking through a hotel lobby, or maybe you were at a party. Well, that happened to me a few months ago. I was in some random place and heard...

"At the core of every entrepreneur is a quest for validation..."

It stopped me in my tracks and I fought it at first but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was truth. At the heart of entrepreneurship is innovation and creation and whenever there is true innovation, there are lots of naysayers. Entrepreneurs see through the negative or misunderstanding comments and at some point say "screw it, I am going to prove them wrong. I am going to make this happen because I believe there is meaning and value here". On some level, many people think we are crazy. Even our friends, family and loved ones come along for the ride not because they believe in the innovation/business but because they believe in US.

So, why do we push so hard? Why do so many entrepreneurs get out after the start-up stage? Why do we love the fight and why do some entrepreneurs get bored when we find success? I think it is because we are driven to prove our spouse, our family, our funding partners and our employees that we are not crazy. We are driven to validate our thinking, our philosophical reasons for being, living and working. Perhaps this is elementary to many of you, but I think that it is important to acknowledge our core motivations. In general, our passion does not start with the business - it starts with us. That's THE reason why VC are prone to fund serial entrepreneurs (Once You are Lucky, Twice You're Good, by Sarah Lacy), because they validated their passion once. It's highly likely they will do it again, no matter what the business.