Got the startup blues?

Every startup founder dreams of changing the world and/or striking it rich. And everything Internet-related seems to happen so fast that you can be easily fooled into believing that your startup has to be an overnight sensation in order to be considered worthwhile. It does work that way for some people. But most of us have to work really hard for a long time, during which we suffer deeply from user envy. I mean, Facebook gets over half a million new users a day! Nothing like somebody else’s huge stats to make you feel horribly inadequate…

We all have days when we get demoralized and depressed and consider giving it all up for a day job.

If you’re suffering from the startup blues, here’s some good medicine for you that’ll put an end to your user envy…

Read Patience and Hard Work from the Contrast blog. “If your number of users is growing 10% each month, you’re doubling your user base every 7 months. So if you’ve only got 70 users, you just need 10 more this month, allowing for churn.”

Watch this inspiring video of David Heinemeier Hansson (37Signals) at Startup School ’08.

David talks, among other things, about the beauty of realistic expectations. He tells you exactly how to make a million dollars in a year (2,000 customers who pay $40 a month). That seems realistic, doesn’t it? Thirty-two very informative, entertaining and refreshing minutes.

Now that you feel better, get back to work!