‘Traits of an entrepreneur: passion, resilience, confidence, flexibility, vision…’

You will find all sorts of embellished descriptions online. Try it. However, by far the most important and common trait seems to be left out.

And that’s eccentricity.

Let’s be honest here for a second; you’ll have to be a ‘little crazy’ to be willing to blow through all your savings, give up sleep for days, halt your social life all together, give up your day time job, and literally any and every sense of security- I can go on and on with my endless list.

So why do it? I wish I had an answer for that, but the truth is I don’t. I just know this is what I want, and I will do what it takes to make it happen. It becomes an obsession after some point.

And that’s where Founder Institute comes in; it helps you tame your obsession.

Being a recent grad with a technical background, the business world was a whole new ballgame for me. Over the duration of 4 months, I have learned about market validation, customer development, financial projects, startup legals, product and sprint development, traction, branding, marketing, fund raising, and so much more!

But this is far from being the only core value of the program. The relationships, the networking, the support, and just surrounding yourself within the ecosystem instills a different kind of motivation.

Within your eccentricity, you begin to feel normal.

One of my favourite quotes from the program is ‘if you aren’t growing, you are sinking’, and I cannot emphasize on how true that is. There is no such thing as a ‘break’ or ‘time off’. You need to work work work! The bar is constantly raised and you are taught to live up to your own expectations.

I live in Ottawa (where I still have a daytime job- I know it’s crazy) and drive down to Montreal on Wednesdays and on weekends to work on my company. My family came to visit me from Dubai last week, and my mother came close to tears seeing my strenuous lifestyle. Without a doubt, I can say these have to be the most intense months of my life; I have never been more satisfied.

At the end of the day, its up to you to pick your battles; you simply cannot have a daytime job, a company, a family and a life all together. Pick Two.

Our director, Sergio Escobar, has gone above and beyond his role to keep us all going. He is very understanding of the fact that I am amongst the youngest in our cohort and supported me accordingly. Spending endless hours on weekends, calming all my apprehensions, Sergio as well as other fellow founders are like family to me now.

So why am I doing it again?

Because I want to see the smile on that child’s face again.

Have yourselves a great week :).