The one thing early founders don't do

They don't look after themselves.

We learned that only the people who grind for 18/20 hours a day can succeed in this world.

We all love to hear stories about someone pulling an all-nighter to get more stuff done.

We have to emulate these unsustainable behaviors if we want to succeed in life.

This is all so wrong.

I was one of those people, but this one thing made me understand how wrong I was.

In case you haven't seen any of my posts before, here's some context:

• I went from 0 to my first paying customer for my new SaaS in 28 days.

• I posted about my entire journey on Reddit and LinkedIn.

• I'm now sharing weekly updates about how I'm growing this business

• You can binge-read all the past updates in my newsletter.

This simple quote pack has way more depth than you might expect.

You'll hear this when talking about "doing things that don't scale". Usually is accompanied by the story about the founders of Stripe. They manually installed Stripe on people's laptops jumping on every change they had.

But there is a different angle to that quote.

If founders don't look after themselves they won't be able to make their startups take off.

If a founder is sleep-deprived, it'll be harder to make the right decision.

If a founder is stressed out of their mind, it'll be harder to concentrate on work.

If a founder is burned out, the company will likely fail.

As a software engineer, I used to boast about the all-nighter I pulled to achieve big things. Or the long nights spent coding and drinking Red Bull.

Everybody loves those stories but what isn't obvious is the damage that that causes.

I was stressed. I wasn't sleeping enough. My diet was completely screwed up.

And even after doing that and more I still lost my job! So it didn't make me un-firable.

There are also physical sides too:

• I have developed tinnitus - a persistent ringing in my left ear. After 100s of tests, the doctors said it stress related

• At some point, I put on so much weight without even realizing it. Not sleeping bad diet is a recipe for an overweight me

So the obvious question you might be asking is: Is it possible to look after ourselves and still succeed?

The answer is absolutely yes. It's more like you'll succeed if do.

Here's a list of non-negotiable for me:

• Sleep 7-8 hours every day. Go to bed early, don't touch your phone while in bed and sleep.

• Walk every day. 10k steps is a myth, benefits of walking start at 2.5k steps and taper off at 20k. Just get in a great walk every day. Helps with stress and you'll get the best ideas.

• Eat well. Limit junk food and sugar. Don't drink caffeine or energy drink 6 hours before going to bed and eat lots of protein.

• Workout. 3 to 5 times a week. Anything goes, lift weights, run, HiiT anything as long as you're doing it

A healthy founder has a higher chances of succeeding.

What do you think? do you agree with the list above? Would you add anything else?

And I'm not all words. I've grinded most of July to get my SaaS started and after I signed up my first customer I took a week off to recover.

I still worked out every day but I didn't touch my laptop. I ate more, walked more, and enjoyed the sunny weather a bit more.

I also played video games and watched television.

I simply unplugged for a week and when I came back I was the most productive I've been in months.

I would love to know what you think. Do you agree with me? disagree? Have I missed something?

Please let me know in the comments!

And now my favorite part, sharing numbers

Numbers

• I currently have 1 customer. MRR of £10.

• I have done 1 user interview this week.

• The newsletter has 49 subscribers. One more and I'll do a 50 pushups video!

• The LinkedIn newsletter has 180 subscribers. Insane!

• Big party on X. Crossed the 200 followers. 204 as of right now

I cannot thank you all enough for your help and support, you're all legends!