What motivates you guys/gals? I find as a founder, that I’m not really ever in a normal office/work like setting as most employees. Employees typically have bosses, managers, etc and usually receive some kind of constant feedback, direction, kudos, corrections, etc which all (hopefully) help steer them in a good direction for the company. This feedback provides a workplace experience that can motivate/demotivate them.
I find as a founder, I have a ton of friends who “think it’s cool” to have a company (though they have no idea the stress and other craziness involved) and I have customers who more often than not point out the bad vs. the good or are in constant “need” of something and the feedback is more or less transactional so they get what they need. (IT industry can be thankless).
Past this, there is no one above me really pointing out the positives other than the occasional customer who goes out of their way to genuinely tell me (us) that we do a great job. Usually I find myself having to motivate myself somehow, or focus on intentionally looking past how I might feel demotivated because the rest of the team needs me to lead.
Don’t get me wrong though, I love what I do, take great pride in the quality of my work, enjoy all the people I work with and realize not everyone gets to do what I do.
How do all you founders keep yourselves motivated? Is this all just a par for the course tradeoff?