You Must Burn (Interlude 3)

Forget being passionate, loving what you do, or wanting to change the world. If you’re bootstrapping a SaaS startup, you must burn. Here’s what that means for you.

(This is an interlude of The Epic Guide to Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup from Scratch — By Yourself. You can read Part 1 of that here.)

[First off, props where props are due. I first heard the words “YOU MUST BURN” from FAKEGRIMLOCK (yes, all in caps just like that, because giant robot startup dinosaurs always say things loudly and type on 1980s computers that can only display caps lock — might have something to do with their very tiny arms?) It stuck with me and has become a rallying cry for me. While the Starks of Winterfell intone that “Winter is coming”, my words are “YOU MUST BURN”. I’m sure that the way that I’ve interpretted those words in my world is different than were originally intended. But I also think that’s part of the beauty of words and meaning.]

Before we get started, do you remember this Seinfeld episode?

KRAMER: Because you see, George, having the keys to Jerry’s apartment? That kept me in a fantasy world. Every time I went over to his house, it was like I was on vacation. Better food, better view, better TV. And cleaner? Oh — much cleaner. That became my reality. I ignored the squalor in my own life because I’m looking at life, you see, through Jerry’s eyes. I was living in twilight, George. Living in the shadows. Living in the darkness…like you.

GEORGE: Me?

KRAMER: Oh, yeah. I can barely see you, George.

GEORGE: Alright, stop it Kramer, you’re freakin’ me out.

WAITRESS: Hi, are you ready to order?

KRAMER (moves over and sits next to George): Do you ever yearn?

GEORGE: Yearn? Do I yearn?

KRAMER: I yearn.

GEORGE: You yearn.

KRAMER: Oh, yes. Yes, I yearn. Often, I…I sit…and yearn. Have you yearned?

GEORGE: Well, not recently. I craved. I crave all the time, constant craving…but I haven’t yearned.

KRAMER (in disgust): Look at you.

GEORGE: Aw, Kramer, don’t start…

KRAMER (moving back to the othe side of the booth): You’re wasting your life.

GEORGE: I am not! What you call wasting, I call living! I’m living my life!

KRAMER: O.K., like what? No, tell me! Do you have a job?

GEORGE: No.

KRAMER: You got money?

GEORGE: No.

KRAMER: Do you have a woman?

GEORGE: No.

KRAMER: Do you have any prospects?

GEORGE: No.

KRAMER: You got anything on the horizon?

GEORGE: Uh…no.

KRAMER: Do you have any action at all?

GEORGE: No.

KRAMER: Do you have any conceivable reason for even getting up in the morning?

GEORGE: I like to get the Daily News!

KRAMER: George, it’s time for us to grow up — and be men. Not little boys.

On a scale of crave to yearn, where do you fall?

Do you think that someday, when you have the right idea and the timing is right, that you’ll start your company? Or that someday, as your content gets indexed and your SEO efforts pay off, you’ll get your first paying customers? Or that someday, after word of mouth kicks in, that your MRR will be enough for you to quit your day job?

Or do you sit… and yearn? Do you find yourself unable to enjoy a nice meal because your stomach is churning and your mind is racing about how to get from Point A to Point B? Do you find it’s near impossible to fall asleep because you don’t want to go to your day job tomorrow, but you don’t know how to change the fact that you still have to go? Do you want nothing more than to have success from something that you’ve built with your own hands? Does it consume every waking thought? Do you feel incomplete without it? Are you downright miserable?

Burning is more than that.

Burning is a 10x over yearning.

Because when you burn, you burn away everything that you were, in order to become the instrument that delivers you to your dreams.

You yearn with your mind. You burn with your body.

Yearning is what you experience when you want something — bad.

Burning is something completely different.

Burning is what happens when you take action on those yearnings.

Burning is forcing yourself to do things you are uncomfortable with. Burning is having the singular focus of your goal in mind while you traverse swamps, bogs, quagmires, and oceans in pursuit of that goal. Burning is action. Burning changes you. Burning transforms you. Burning destroys the sorry wantrepreneur you were, and replaces it with someone who is willing to take the actions necessary to attain the dreams you glimpsed and once yearned for.

People who yearn have “ideas”. They cling to them like sad little puppies, refusing to leave them by the wayside when it’s obvious they’re holding them back.

People who burn have a goal. They don’t care for sad little puppies. They want results, not empty ideas. Your ideas won’t get you out of your day job. Your ideas won’t let you spend more time with your kids. Your ideas won’t pay off the mortgage. Your ideas won’t put food on your table. Actions get results.

Burning emboldens you. It changes you. Only when you take action do you start to see reality for what it really is. Only when you take action can you ever hope to get the things you once yearned for.

When you take action, you burn away the weakling idealist you were. Your ideas get put to the fire. Your opinions of yourself get put to the fire. You get put to the fire. It’s uncomfortable. It hurts. You’ll feel like you can’t go on. But you must.

Because in order to become the person you want to be, you must leave behind the person you are today.