“My ability is to deal with zero.”
The words came from a client of mine, the sole founder and CEO of a business.
By zero, she means the stage where nothing has been touched yet.
Show a hundred, a thousand, or better yet, a billion, and a line will form of people eager to realize the obvious potential of your business.
Your inbox will be flooded with résumés from Harvard graduates, star CEOs, investment bankers, Big Three consultants, and Big Four auditors.
They all know exactly what your business urgently needs to do, or else “all is lost.”
But if you're at the early stage of a product or a business, rest assured — no one will come knocking. Except maybe someone just like you.
Holding the uncertainty of emptiness is both a gift and a skill. It’s hard to say which matters more. I’ve seen all kinds of people among entrepreneurs. One thing they had in common was a tolerance for zero.
In practical terms, it means investing effort, time, and money into something that swallows them up without giving you the feedback you desperately want. Not for days or hours, but for weeks, months, years. You keep digging around in the “dirt” seemingly for nothing.
Everyone tells you so, sympathetically — and your inner critic is first in line. On one side, the anvil of emptiness. On the other, the hammer of society.
And you're caught between them. Working on your "crazy" idea.
Why?
"I believe in it deeply," the founder explains. "If I said I would do it, I'll find a way. There's a faster path somewhere. It exists — I just can't see it yet. And it turns up."
Zero has already given birth to one. Once you've lived through that, you believe.
Sincerely yours,
-Alexander
As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.
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