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We always speak about how important it is for Startup Founders to get their resources, their strengths and their support systems clearly plugged in because there is no doubt you will need them. Today, when I, as a founder of an aggressively growing company, sitting in a place, that brings the best out of me, sipping chilled beer and looking at the vastness of the Ocean, I start to recollect all my support systems. I have an uphill task ahead of me and I know I have some of the greatest resources in the form of our Club Members, Investors, Shareholders, Team members, Co-founders and above all, Myself. 

I believe I am a very strong, aggressive leader, with a focus of an eagle. But is it true, is a thought that came to my mind. I stopped on my beer and put the glass down immediately. It struck me like lightning. I was very clear with all other supports but the last one, MYSELF, am I clear on who actually I am? What makes me what I am? Why do I do the things I do? I search for the answers, true answers, deep in my thoughts. There are different thoughts running in my head. I have two options for me now, push those thoughts away or to dig deep. I choose the latter. I have to dig deep, I have to find the true me for me to excel and shine the way, I best can. Just then, couple of entrepreneurs pass by and they recognise me and are excited to talk to me, usually I would jump for this chance to know more about these entrepreneurs, but right now, I needed me to myself, I politely call them for beers in the evening at the same place and they head out and I get back to my thoughts, staring at the Ocean ahead of me.

Who am I? What is my core strength? What makes me, me? Everyone around me thinks I am just not a go-getter but also a “Goal-Getter”, I set goals, I focus and I go after it, but that is not completely correct, is it? I keep pushing forward and finally I see things coming together, it starts to make sense, my actions seem to make sense… I am that kind of an individual, who achieves what she has to achieve, not because she has goals to achieve but because she has people around her, who believe she will. My strength is not my focus, my strength is not my go-getting attitude or my goals but my strength are those set of people, who believe that I will get what is to be got. If I am collecting my support systems, I must be bringing along people who believe in my dreams, my passion, my goals and madness or at least nurture the people I have with me. 

How did I realise this now? It occurred to me now because of some of the toughest moments in the recent past. I almost lost few of those people, who totally believed in me for various other factors but the fact that I did not have them with me, but I had my goals, my targets and yet I could not get my fire, focus on my targets, was reason enough to understand my true strength. With things working out back again with these people, slow baby steps of finding them back, I started getting back my ability to get on track with my goals and passion to drive and drive at lightening speed. I now realise, my strength is not the ability to achieve my goals, it is my ability to make my people’s belief on me happen. This today is one of the biggest strength for my company, that as a founder, I understand what really is my true self.

Founding a company is not any less than giving birth to a child. The pains keep increasing as the startup / company sets out on its growth path. The faster and bigger you grow, the challenges thrive and become bigger and greater as well and as a Founder, you stand the first to face it all and if you are a great leader, you will not let that trickle down to the team or the company, you will take it all in you, you will solve them and you will make the company thrive and not the challenges. You will be wounded, you will be bruised and you will be hurt in every which way possible but you will not let anyone else get affected with it and you will stand tall. But to do that, you will have to find your inner most, the deepest of strengths and make it your shield and a shield so strong that nothing ever touches you, nothing ever brings you down, nothing ever slows you from taking your company towards growth. 

So, as soon as you finish this read, stand up, put yours hands on your sides, hold your chin high and look up to the skies and close your eyes and feel the Superman inside you. You need your true self to give the world the most successful company, the Unicorn and more..