Guy Reams (00:01.208)
This is day 136, the real asset that you are building. As a startup founder, I have heard the phrase, it's about the journey, more times than I can count. And I'll be honest, when cash is tight, progress is slow, and the destination feels like the only thing that matters, those words land pretty hollow. They sound like something people say when they've already made it, when they can afford to be philosophical about the struggle.
When you are in the grind, the journey does not feel like something to celebrate. It feels like something to just survive. But I've been thinking about that differently lately. The phrase is not about ignoring the goal. It's not about pretending that the destination does not matter. It's about recognizing that the real value of the journey is who it forces you to become. The tough middle is where this happens. The uncertainty, the setbacks, the long stretches without applause.
This is not the part anyone talks about in the success stories. It is not the part that gets celebrated, but it is the part that matters the most. This is where resilience gets forged. This is where clarity emerges. This is where discipline stops being a choice and becomes just required. This is where conviction gets tested and either breaks or hardens into something unshakable. The destination may validate the effort. It may prove that the work was worth it.
It may give you the outcome you were chasing, but the journey transforms the founder. And in startups, that transformation is often the real asset that is being built. I actually see this now looking back at the hard stretches, the moments when I thought I was just trying to survive, or the moments I was actually learning the most. I was learning how to make decisions without perfect information. I was learning how to keep moving when nothing felt certain. I was learning how to lead when I did not feel like a leader.
I was learning to trust the process even when it felt completely broken. None of that learning happened at the destination. It happened in the middle. It happened in the grind. It happened in the moments I wanted to skip. The journey transforms the founder and that transformation is often the real asset being built. So when someone tells you it's about the journey, they are not dismissing your goal. They're not telling you to stop caring about the outcome.
Guy Reams (02:24.153)
They're telling you to pay attention to what is happening to you along the way, because the person you are becoming is the thing that will carry you through the next challenge, and the one after that, and the one after that. The destination matters, but the journey is where you become something or someone capable of reaching it. And I think that's probably the real work.