Don’t build for money - I’ve been seeing a lot of posts lately about entrepreneurs not seeing much monetary value at the end of their journey (typically because they gave away too much equity). As a founder building in the trenches right now, I can say three things:

1. When you’re in the trenches, your only focus is survival.

   • If my company is on the verge of failing or my team needs support to keep taking bold risks, I’ll do whatever it takes to get us to a better position. That might mean giving up equity or making hard trade-offs.

2. There’s honour in doing the hard things.

   • Yes, founders should be rewarded in the end - but if you’re building just to get rich, are you really building for the right reasons? Money can vanish in an instant. Don’t build for wealth, build for the mission.

   Proverbs 23:4-5 Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

3. The journey itself is incredibly valuable.

   • In the past two years, I’ve learned how to manage a team, oversee finances, launch and sunset products, hire and fire, and - most importantly - how to stay calm under pressure. When things go wrong (every other day), I know how to control my emotions and take action.

I’ve said this to our team, investors, and friends over the past few weeks: I would die for what we’re building right now. I know we’re solving a big problem - I see it, and I live it every single day. Sure, the money will be nice. But that’s not why I’m doing this. I’m doing this for the mission.

If we don’t solve the problems we’re tackling at CloudSafaris, someone else will. But we are the best team to do it - and we will.