Ain't no hobby

Kevin Kisner is one of my favorite golfers on tour. He’s always brutally honest with the media like when he admitted that he couldn’t win the Master’s but that placing 20th pays pretty damn well. He also has a hilarious line when golfing: “this ain’t no hobby”.

For him, technically golf is his job. For me, golf is a hobby. A very addicting one that I’m not very good at, but that’s beyond the point. My job today is to grow my startup, Secfi. For anyone that has worked at a startup, you know for sure that it isn’t no hobby.

I think the media and television glorifies startups quite a bit. They picture us hanging out, playing ping pong, having amazing meals catered to us. There’s some truth to this of course, but the reality is that most of time my life is hectic and stressful. It’s exhausting dealing with constant fires and issues that come up. By the end of a work week, I’m often ready to hibernate for 48 hours.

So why does anyone do it? Everyone has their reasons. Some do it for the potential payout, some for the prestige, others may just simply enjoy working in a small team. For me, it’s all the above - within 6 months of working for Secfi, I knew I found my calling and I will likely never work for a large company again.

I love the aspect of building and growing a company. I love working in small teams to solve problems. I love the idea that there may be a delayed payout one day if I do my job and succeed. All these things excite the heck out of me and get me out of bed every day to work.

Of course, all the positives also comes with the negatives mentioned above. As much as I like it, working at a startup ain’t no hobby.