The Road

I have been around the tech entrepreneurial world for most of my professional career. At a certain point, feeling dissatisfied and removed from my previous aspirations, I decided to reboot and take control of my life. I must confess that this journey has been way harder than I ever imagined. In reviewing some of the mistakes I have made, I have few insights that I want to share, hoping they can help you prepare for your journey. 1. Giving up – when the going gets tough I started with a blog, hoping to learn more about the industry, find connections, and build an audience. I r...

As an entrepreneur, you probably occasionally have your moments of doubts, when you ask yourself: Should I go on, or is it time to stop? Have I reached a dead-end, or is it simply another challenge that needs to be met? On the one hand, you know you are fully invested in the process, you have devoted time and energy, you have made some sacrifices and probably put in some money; on the other hand, doubts and uncertainty are essential to progress. So how can you know whether it is time to recalibrate and move onto a different path, or, alternatively, whether you should stick with your...

How often do you find yourself on the verge of giving up, thinking it’s just been too long since you started?  Before you make any decisions, it might be worth reminding yourself that the bigger your goal or your dream, the longer and harder it may take to get there. Along the way you'll meet endless achievers who have already arrived at their destination, either because they started earlier, they run faster, or they simply had an easier, more achievable goal. No dream is unattainable; it is just the question of distance that will determine how long it will take to achieve it. R...

Running and entrepreneurship are not the same thing. You can be a great runner and have nothing to do with starting a business, and you can (apparently) be a happy and successful entrepreneur who hasn’t run a single mile in her life. Yet, there are, in my experience, a few similarities, and some thoughts that keep emerging while doing one of the two which remind me of their resemblance. 1. You never get used to the starts. No matter how many times you’ve done it before, every new run requires a call to that inner motivation starter that will get you out there one more time and "ge...

When you call someone a perfectionist, do you mean it as a compliment? Do you look at a co-worker or friend with a pinch of envy and think to yourself: "she's a perfectionist—no wonder she looks perfect and, at the same time, juggles all her tasks and manages her work life so well." Well, you may want to think again. Refusing to accept any standard short of perfection comes with the tendency to be orderly, detail-oriented, conscientious about following rules and doing what is right and "proper.” This often comes with a price tag, however, because the same person may be afraid of maki...

"Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances… Strong men believe in cause and effect.” Ralph Waldo Be you shallow or not, luck is certainly a great ingredient to have in life but far from being sufficient. Many people do seem to believe, however, in that axiom: "Everything happens for a reason." Like me, you too, at some time or another, must have come across truisms such as: "It might take a year, it might take a day, but what's meant to be will always find its way" or "sometimes when thing are falling apart, they may actually be falling into place." And as easy as it...

"Expectation is the root of all heartache." William Shakespeare Anyone over their twenties will have had a chance or two to realize that the way you manage your expectations can help prepare you for disappointment. Yet, nothing can train you to deal with your expectations better than confronting disappointment. For entrepreneurs, this question of expectation and disappointment becomes particularly tricky: on the one hand, your long term vision must trust that things will turn out the way you dreamt and that you can make them happen, but at the same time you must be able to...

Being an entrepreneur is not an easy journey; being a woman, a mother, and over-emotional entrepreneur is even harder. Men or Women – You’ll Never Know Until You Try Being an entrepreneur, woman or man, is hard because it is an unfamiliar, long and bumpy road on which, no matter how smart, talented, experienced and professional you are, success is unpredictable. Even with your best preparations, there are and will always be factors completely out of your control. In his highly recommended Ted Talk, entrepreneur Bill Gross tries to figure out from his years of experience wi...

"Loneliness does not come from having no people around you, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to you." Carl Jung The issue of loneliness in this era of high connectivity, when people are connected 24/7 via their mobile devices, has never been more relevant and acute. Feeling alone or empty can be associated with the quality rather than the quantity of relationships, emphasizing also a social approach which belittles being alone and expects a constant social involvement.  But being alone doesn't have to mean loneliness. Loneliness is a s...

I remember one of the first times I sat with a former colleague from the high tech industry trying to brainstorm an early incarnation of my idea. I had so many doubts at the time. At that point, I knew only one thing: I was not going to fake the self-assurance or confidence that I lacked. Although he wasn’t such a close friend, I felt no need to pretend to be someone who I was not, and so, in a rather naive, and in retrospect, foolishly honest way, I shared with him one of my deepest fears by asking the question: "But what if I fail?" He probably doesn’t remember a thing; for him, an...