I don't care about changing the world (right now)

The VC perspective on startups is ruining my passion for business.

Everywhere I look, someone has raised millions of dollars to change the world. I get it. Stories about world-changing ideas sell better, get more clicks.

It's just getting a little... exhausting.

Attending startup events or hackathons, I feel embarrassed to share small ideas. I pretend I also want to change the world — tackle environmental issues, revolutionize massive industries with AI.

In reality, I'd be perfectly happy to continue building small indie products making enough money to sustain my lifestyle. But I don't feel I can say that. At least not in those circles.

Grow to billions or die. If you don't make it big, it's worthless. You have to dream bigger. That's the sentiment of all the startup podcasts I've been listening to. The advice I received during various startup schools. Talking to people building startups. It's the business model of VC, so of course they advocate for it.

I just wonder, how many people truly care about having a massive impact? I don't know. Sure, there might be a lot of people. But I bet there's a lot of people out there too that would love to build products and start businesses, but get scared off from this binary view of either going all in, or not bothering at all. Right now, I'm one of them.

The obsession with the hustle. Working endless days. There is no shortcut to create something big. Of course. But is making it big really the only end game?

I recently had a conversation with a successful serial entrepreneur and at one point we started talking about building businesses. For him, it was clear that any business worth starting required immense sacrifice and effort.

I asked, "Is that true even for a lifestyle business?"

He paused for a bit, like the idea of building something small wasn't even on his map. "Huh. Hmm. Maybe not... I guess you could get something to a few million without too much effort."

I rarely come across stories about people who have built modest but profitable products while clocking in a moderate amount of work. No, it's all about the founders that sacrifice everything. Give it all. Those make for better stories.

Only being exposed to these massively ambitious founders sometimes makes my mimetic desire kick in. That's what I'm supposed to want too, right?

It takes effort to see through the illusion and be honest with myself. Being surrounded by other founders, it's scary to admit that such a path doesn't appeal to me.

Because frankly, I don't care about changing the world. At least not right now. I just want permission to build something small, and for that to be enough.

Man, I need to stop scrolling LinkedIn.