Support on the Home front…

While I have often thought about how hard life can be as a startup entrepreneur, I have to admit that I haven’t nearly thought as much about how much harder it has been for my family to support me through all the highs and lows. Quite easily, its a much harder challenge – mainly so because its such a thankless job. They don’t really get to experience all the highs that you enjoy running your own startup, and have to endure all the lows and more. And they didn’t even really sign up for that role by choice – In all likelihood, they just wanted you to do what you wanted to do and therefore went along.

This post is a tribute to Anusha, my wife and the rest of my family. While not all of them agreed with the decision of starting off on my own, they have given me one hundred percent of their support one hundred percent of the time. Life is hard now, but it would have been impossible had they not backed me as strongly. Obviously, Anusha took the bulk of that burden and has patiently travelled on the journey with me, carrying a lot of the baggage during that time. The fact that she still has her job is definitely a relief – the pressure isn’t as intense as it could potentially be when it comes time to pay the bills, god alone knows how much worse that would be. But really, I honestly think that’s the easy part. If you know me, I have my fair share of mood swings and can be a very unpleasant guy to be around, especially at home where I take the liberty with people close to me – and I was that lousy when I had a stable job, career was going well etc. So you can only imagine how much worse it would be now, considering I take all the stress from the startup home and unload it one go. I think she now knows quite well what hell must be like, and still puts up with it, forever a smile on her face. Thank you, dear Anusha, its not without reason that I consider you my best friend for life. Sometimes you have a gift in your possession that you know you don’t deserve but yet you are never going to give that up – you are my special gift.

A friend recently sent me a blog post that also highlighted the importance of family for everyone involved with a startup, including employees. I think it was a great piece, and is very relevant for this post. The author has done much better justice to the subject than I ever can. So, if this topic interests you, read on.