Entrepreneurship: Why We Need to Embrace Joy (and Why it is so Hard)

I’ve found myself revisiting the message of a recent tweet from Arlan Hamilton about giving herself permission to feel joy.

If you haven’t already heard of her or met her, Arlan is the dynamic, outspoken founder of a venture capital firm focused on funding startups founded by underestimated individuals of color as well as female and LGBT entrepreneurs.

Her tweet was posted during a whirlwind pace of high visibility appearances spanning the globe — something that most would imagine to be the height of success after struggling for so long to achieve her vision.

I resonated with her sentiment, because I had a similar experience after closing our seed round of funding for our startup in 2015 — and many times since . Instead of feelings of victory or any kind of high, I sometimes struggle with feelings of overwhelm and even discouragement. I’ve attributed these feelings to the weight of responsibility and exhaustion from the push to achieve a goal.

But the more I think about it, I wonder if these negative feelings aren’t based in fear of losing the edge that helped get us this far.

When we are tilting at windmills, fighting against barriers, angry at the unfair disadvantages we’re facing — negative emotions fuel our resolve, help us stay focused on our unwavering purpose.

Those feelings are safe. We know them. We’ve lived with them far longer than we should have had to, but they served their purpose in helping us achieve what seemed like an impossible goal.

But when we achieve the impossible and things are going good, when we could feel joy because of our accomplishments, perhaps we find it safer to avoid the joy and conjur once again the more negative emotions that helped us achieve our early successes.

To be honest, I’ve found that when I’m angry or feel wronged, I have hyper focus on righting that wrong. But when I’m happy, my mind wanders freely in the world of “what if”. It is in these more positive emotions that I can explore new possibilities. Happiness, at least for me, fuels passion and creativity.

The next time I find myself low when the more natural reaction might be happiness, I’m going to pause a moment and look inward. If I’m feeling the overwhelm or genuinely low, then I will be patient and allow myself to experience these emotions.

But if I realize my darker feelings are rooted in fear of losing my edge or the need to channel the power of anger or determination — I will give myself permission to instead feel joy, embrace it, so that I can tap into the creativity and passion that will help me become a better entrepreneur and leader.