Give A Damn

Not too long ago I met a group of startup owners. They were just starting to enter the startup scene, and were looking for investors.

The very first reaction from one of them when I told them that I was running a startup was, “Oh! So you like to play with startups too?”

I raised an eyebrow. I knew there was something wrong in the remark, but it took me quite a bit to figure out what.

From the ensuing conversation I found out that they have several “startups” which were a bit vague, and I am pretty sure that one was a tech blog and another was a forum. They were from out of town, and in the city for startup workshop or something, and went to a monthly startup meetup that we have here.

I should say I was impressed by their determination to enter the startup world. They were young, some of them were fresh graduates, they could pursue a career in corporate jobs instead of building a startup.

But in my point of view, their determination lacked something important. Giving a damn.

I finally figured out what was wrong in their remark. They said “play with startups” rather than building one. They built several startups with vague idea rather than focusing on one they believe in. It seemed like they built startup for the sake of building a startup.

I believe you must care, or I should say give a damn, about everything you do. If you think startup is just a toy, I do not think you will be able to reach success like Zuckerberg with his Facebook. Why would anyone love your product if you do not care about it?

So just like Alexis Ohanian (Reddit Co-Founder) said in his Behance presentation, give a damn, give lots of damns.