[The Build] Becoming the Person

“Yes, VCs love credentials.”

After getting my phD, I stood at a crossroads.
On one side were the glamorous paths everyone expected: a prestigious research lab, a global tech giant. It seemed like the smart move was to add another famous brand name to my resume. My rational mind was calculating.
“These credentials could make any potential fundraising much easier.”

But all of that rational calculation crumbled in the face of a single sentence.

That sentence was in the final chapter of a book called The Monk and the Riddle:

“… there is the most dangerous risk of all — the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later.”

i.e. “There is no more time to postpone what you want to do.”

It hit me like a ton of bricks. It was more than just a nice quote; it shook the very foundation of my thinking. I had to wonder, was my “rational” plan to wait for better credentials just another name for fear? This sentence left me with a huge question:

‘Where do I truly want to go?’

​I realized entrepreneurship is about who you become.
​The realization was crystal clear.

If there’s a person you want to become, you have to start living like them — right now, even in a small way. That’s the only way to ultimately become “that kind of person”. This, to me, is the essence of being a founder.

So my first question wasn’t ‘What business should I start?’ It was something else entirely. The journey itself creates the traveler.

​I realized being a founder wasn’t a title I could earn later. It was a state of being I had to choose and live out, immediately. It’s only by the act of being that person, right here and now, that you truly become them.
​So my real first step wasn’t a plan for VCs. It was a choice. ​I chose the act of becoming over the act of planning.

What did I choose?
I joined a friend’s startup and after 5 years now I finally became an entrepreneur.

​What’s one small way you started being the person you want to be today?

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