{"id":3000073466,"date":"2024-03-19T15:44:35","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T19:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/?p=3000073466"},"modified":"2024-05-03T09:16:40","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T13:16:40","slug":"5-powerful-pieces-of-advice-for-founders-from-founders-whove-made-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/management-leadership\/5-powerful-pieces-of-advice-for-founders-from-founders-whove-made-it","title":{"rendered":"Five powerful pieces of advice for founders (from founders who\u2019ve made it)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Building a company is one thing. Building a company while taking care of your well-being is another. At WeWork\u2019s first-ever Leaders’ Wellness Summit, two successful founders \u2014 Janine Yancey<\/a> and Doug Lessing<\/a> \u2014 opened up about their founder journeys and how wellness played an essential part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Five powerful pieces of advice for founders (from founders who\u2019ve made it)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

1. Be kind to yourself.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Moving on from his first company after three decades was a huge transition for Lessing. His coach advised him to be kind to himself<\/em>, leading Lessing to, of all places, a float tank. Though he\u2019d never been, he went 100+ times while exiting one company to build another. \u201cThere you are, lying in the dark, in six inches of water,\u201d he recalls, \u201cand it was one of those things that allowed me to be kind to myself, to absorb all the shocks to the system coming from the uncertainty and transition to a new company.\u201d It stuck to him. When an audience member asked what his first action would be if he had a vision for something new, Lessing answered, \u201cI\u2019d go into the float tank.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Know it pays to be intentional<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Yancey used to not think twice about reaching out to team members on weekends or early mornings. In her mind, she just wanted to get the message off her doorstep and onto theirs. Observing how expectations around employee experience had changed recently (and having a teammate admit the last thing they wanted on the weekend was a paragraph on Slack from the founder), Yancey challenged herself to become more intentional about how she communicates. She noticed the payoff nearly immediately and now does the same with her self-care strategy, intentionally scheduling an hour for herself on her calendar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Play the long game with patience<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe biggest risk to startups is not funding, not the idea, not product market fit, it’s the founders giving up,\u201d says Lessing, who notes that practicing patience can help keep founders from quitting. \u201cBuilding a company is very, very hard, and it’s going to take time,\u201d Lessing states. He likened it to triathlons, explaining how, in a race, it pays off not to be the fastest swimmer, so you have the legs for the bike and then the run. \u201cYou have to take the long view, get rid of the transactional mindset, and be patient because it\u2019s an endurance game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Making caring your superpower.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I look back over the 30 years in my last business and building this company, I realize my strength is that I care,\u201d notes Lessing. \u201cI care about people, about relationships, about details, and about being authentic.\u201d His experience has shown that things like safety and well-being come naturally in a place where people care (especially leadership). Caring also empowers top talent. Lessing points to the triangle of trust and how empathy (making sure people feel you care about them) is a core piece to the triangle and, coincidentally, a core attribute of Lessing\u2019s high performers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Let go so you can grow.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Yancey is a CEO most comfortable in the trenches\u2026but<\/em> she also knows the most successful CEOs can see what must be done from 30,000 feet. To get her there, one of her mentors, a 4x founder, explained, \u201cYou will never have someone on your team that’s going to do the job as well as you because they don’t have the same level of investment or skin in the game \u2014 and that’s okay<\/em>.\u201d He explained how part of her job was to get comfortable delegating, even if it was to someone who was a little less skilled or would put a little less time into it. They\u2019d still get the job done. She\u2019s leaned into this advice while growing her team \u2014 knowing it’s what’s best for her and the business.<\/p>\n\n\n