514: How to Keep Your Sanity in 2020

Explicit content warning

06/09/20 • -1 min

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to keep your sanity in 2020.

With all that is going on in the world at the moment, the COVID-19 epidemic and the current police brutality protests going on around the world, it’s really difficult to stay composed and not let it all affect your mental health negatively.

In this week’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about things they are doing to stay sane at the moment, how nobody really knows how to feel right now, how information overload could be a problem right now and much more.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 About today’s topic.

00:23 Why this topic was chosen.

01:58 How Hiten is keeping his sanity right now.

02:36 The difference between luck and gratitude.

03:00 How nobody really knows how to feel right now.

03:12 How information overload could be a problem right now.

04:06 One really unique thing about these times.

05:50 How Steli is keeping his sanity right now.

07:19 One reason why this current situation is so intense.

09:07 How this current situation is hitting a nerve with a lot of people.

3 Key Points:

This year is something else!
These are unusual times
I just feel really lucky.
Nobody really knows how to feel.

[0:00:01]

Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti.

[0:00:03]

Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah.

[0:00:05]

Steli Efti: And today on the Startup Chat we’re going to talk about how to keep your sanity in 2020, how to be a founder during these times, how to be a human these times. Man, this year is something else, and I’m sure we’re not the only... Lots of people are going through a lot of things right now. I felt like typically we’re known for super short, super sharp, very tactical and practical episodes, but these are unusual times so maybe they call for an unusual Startup Chat episode. I felt like it might make sense for us to just check, how do we deal with this? How do we think about all the insanity that’s going on in the world? Maybe we do have a few things to share with our listeners that are going to be helpful or if not, maybe that in and of itself gives some comfort that not even the two of us know how to deal with this.

[0:01:02]

Hiten Shah: That’s right.

[0:01:03]

Steli Efti: So let me ask you, the first big wave was obviously the global pandemic and COVID, now we’re going through this wave of worldwide demonstrations and rights, peaceful protests kicked off by police brutality, but it’s maybe even bigger than just that. There’s a lot of different things that are in the mix that are going on right now. How have the last two, three weeks been for you, and for your team, and your company? Has it been different than the first COVID wave of craziness, and how do you cope? How do you keep your sanity during all of this right now?

[0:01:50]

Hiten Shah: Yeah. For me, I just feel really lucky and I think I have, at this point, an unlimited number of reasons why, and so I couldn’t even cover them. I think that’s how I deal with this, I just realize where I’m lucky and make sure that I don’t lose sight of that regardless of what else is going on for other people because that’s really helpful. I think we might’ve talked about this a little bit, but I’ve been really wrapping my head around for myself, the difference between luck and gratitude. I think we talked about that a little bit a couple of times at least, and for me, that’s the thing that helps the most is this idea of just remembering how lucky I am. If I have to, reminding other people whether it’s in my family or people around me, when they’re feeling sad or feeling the collective situation in whatever ways that they might be feeling it because one of the things about this is nobody really knows how to feel. Nobody knows how to act. We just don’t know. There’s a lot of combined things going on, a lot of opinions, a lot of information. I think the biggest risk is information overload, that’s what I’m noticing with people around me. In terms of my companies and teams and stuff, we keep those teams very small. That’s how we’ve always operated, regardless of what the goal is. That makes it so that there are less challenges on the teams for two reasons. One, they’re small, and small meaning less than 20 people, and two, they’re all remote, just like your team. That distributes literally any world situation or any local situation, really distributes it. The thing about what’s going on right now that I’m noticing and that I find very unique is that there are protests all over the world now. All over...

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to keep your sanity in 2020.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 About today’s topic.

00:23 Why this topic was chosen.

01:58 How Hiten is keeping his sanity right now.

02:36 The difference between luck and gratitude.

03:00 How nobody really knows how to feel right now.

03:12 How information overload could be a problem right now.

04:06 One really unique thing about these times.

05:50 How Steli is keeping his sanity right now.

07:19 One reason why this current situation is so intense.

09:07 How this current situation is hitting a nerve with a lot of people.

3 Key Points:

This year is something else!
These are unusual times
I just feel really lucky.
Nobody really knows how to feel.

[0:00:01]

Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti.

[0:00:03]

Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah.

[0:00:05]

[0:01:02]

Hiten Shah: That’s right.

[0:01:03]

[0:01:50]

Previous Episode

513: Online Meetings & Virtual Events During COVID-19

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about online meetings & virtual events during COVID-19.

One thing that has been on the rise during the COVID 19 crisis has been online conferences, and there are a number of factors that are causing this. One of those is that people ar3e working from home and have more time to attend these conferences.

In today’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about how the number of invitations to online events conferences has revved up rapidly, Hiten’s experience with online events, how people have more time for online events right now and much more.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 About today’s topic.

00:40 Why this topic was chosen.

01:28 How the number of invitations to online events and conferences has revved up rapidly.

02:02 Hiten’s experience with online events.

03:39 How things might gradually shift.

04:23 Why this explosion of online events fascinates Hiten.

04:54 How people have more time for online events right now.

06:00 How people are starving for new connections.

06:40 How online events are much easier to attend.

07:22 One thing that’s always going to be true about online events.

3 Key Points:

The amount of invitations to online events and conferences has revved up rapidly.
There’s been a lot of exuberance for online events, more than I’ve ever seen in my life.
This explosion is fascinating to me.

[0:00:00]

Steli Efti: Hey everybody this is [Steli Efti].

[0:00:03]

Hiten Shah: This is [Hiten Shah].

[0:00:04]

Steli Efti: Today on The Startup Chat we want to talk about online meetings, webinars, conferences during COVID-19, is it a good idea, is it a bad idea, is it going to, yeah what is happening in the world around the trying to bring physical events online, what are we experiencing, observing? We both felt like it’s an interesting thing that’s going on around the world, Zoom fatigue and other things pop to mind. We just wanted to chit chat and see what we’re observing, what we think will happen next, how to think about these things. Let me ask you first, I have just, the amount of invitations to online events and conferences for me has just ramped up drastically. Obviously because this is conference summer time I guess and a lot of conference organizers decided to try to do their events completely online but also just the amount of webinars that companies give, the amount of meetings that you, I mean we always because we were remote, always had a lot of Zoom meetings. It’s gotten even more because now I do Zoom meetings with friends, I do Zoom meetings, calls with family members. I just do a lot more of these virtual video conferencing calls. Yeah, I’m curious, are you also, I’ve done a few conferences, I’ve done a bunch of webinars and everything in between so far. I’m starting to try to figure out how I feel about all of this and if I want to do more or less and what’s going to happen in the market. What about you? What’s kind of been your experience of the last couple of weeks?

[0:01:45]

Hiten Shah: I think there’s been a lot of exuberance for online events like more than I’ve ever seen in my life. I’ll start that way because I still don’t know what to think because of what I just said, there’s been more than ever. For the moment, it feels like people are into it. Into it meaning there’s enough people that are still into it where if you throw some online something or other and have some way to promote it people will show up because it’s not that they don’t have anything better to do, it’s that they’re seeking connection. They’re seeking this. I led a few over the last two or three weeks. I wouldn’t say an insane amount but definitely more than I would’ve normally and I probably have a few more to lead in terms of like topics like product management or remote work or whatever in partnership with different folks. I’ve done that too. I think you’ve done probably more than me. Then even today, the today that we’re recording I have one that I’m going to that I’m actually attending not leading which is usually rare for me. I don’t go to a lot of these things. I don’t know, it’s in the air, what can I say? I’ve never seen anything like it. In terms of what happens next like you’ll probably just see a shift into, a shift or transformations of these events if we continue on the pace we are because I think people are going to get tired of it at some point it’s like hey, enough is enough, we don’t need more online events to go to on some regular cadence or whatever. Maybe the topics will dry up. That being said like I’m not sure because we’ve had online events for the longest time. These onlin...

Next Episode

515: “Should Have Done This Earlier”

In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about “Should Have Done This Earlier”.

Business comes with lots of challenges. Sometimes we figure out the solution to a challenge and, depending on how you look at it, might feel relieved about figuring it out or frustration about not doing so sooner.

In this episode, Steli and Hiten talk about why you shouldn’t focus on the negative side of things, the benefits of having a positive outlook on things why working on our attitudes towards ourselves can be a game-changer and much more.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 About the topic of today’s episode

00:31 Why this topic was chosen.

01:07 Why Hiten tweeted about today topic.

02:32 How there are different ways to look at a lightbulb moment.

03:52 How what you focus on changes how you look at different situations.

04:56 Why how you feel whenever you figure out something challenging doesn’t matter.

05:15 Why you shouldn’t focus on the negative side of things.

06:54 Why you shouldn’t set conditions for yourself.

07:00 The benefits of having a positive outlook on things.

09:53 Why working on our attitudes towards ourselves can be a game-changer.

3 Key Points:

If you feel that you were dumber a year ago, you’re growing.
Not every day is going to be the same.
What you focus on a situation, changes how you look at it.

[0:00:01]

Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti.

[0:00:03]

Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah.

[0:00:05]

Steli Efti: And today on the Startup Chat, we’re going to talk about, this is another tweet episode. This is a new tradition we have, where Steli Efti reads Hiten’s tweets and once in a while thinks, ha, this is both very wise and kind of curious, and there’s something here that we should probably unpack for the audience on the Startup Chat. So I’m going to read the tweet that you posted recently Hiten, and then I’m going to ask you what prompted it, and we’ll just see what unfolds.

[0:00:34]

Hiten Shah: Sounds good.

[0:00:34]

Steli Efti: So here’s the tweet. “Should have done this earlier. I should have done this earlier. A statement full of frustration and relief at the same time.” All right. So what made you tweet this?

[0:00:51]

Hiten Shah: Yeah, it’s one of those things that’s related to another thing that I really kind of have funny feelings about. And that thing is this idea that if you felt like you were dumber a year ago, you know you’re growing. Or you felt dumb for some opinion you had, or thought you had or think you did a year ago or whatever, you’re growing. So it’s very similar to that where it’s like, sometimes you just have those moments and this is very, it’s personal life and work and business, but you have those moments where you’re like, “Oh, should have done this earlier.” And sometimes it’s just an idea that you have, and you’re like, “Crap, that’s just the one.” Or for like, let’s say, a marketing channel or something like that, that you just didn’t think of then all of a sudden you did, just to give a very simple example. Or it’s something that you just did and you’re like, “Oh, I should have done that earlier.” So it’s kind of like this feeling that I get sometimes. And I’m frustrated because I wish I would’ve figured it out earlier, but I’m also very relieved because I figured it out. I finally figured it out. I got it. All right, cool. So it was one of those moments where I felt that and felt like I had to share just to release it and get over myself. So that was it. It was just that.

[0:02:20]

Steli Efti: You know, what’s funny is that, I should have done this earlier, there’s many flavors of this, right?

[0:02:26]

Hiten Shah: Yeah.

[0:02:26]

Steli Efti: And there is one that is more regretful...

[0:02:30]

Hiten Shah: Yes.

[0:02:31]

Steli Efti: ... And then there is a version of this that’s just more relieved. Like I should’ve done this earlier, but the underlying energy is, I’m happy I’ve done it now, right? I’m happy...

[0:02:42]

Hiten Shah: Yes.

[0:02:43]

Steli Efti: Like this is the Chinese proverb of, “20 years ago was the best time to plant a tree, the second best time is today,” or something like that. It’s like, I didn’t get it done, but thank God I got it done n...