Why founders never feel fully satisfied and how to cope
In a podcast conversation, Anaita discusses the 'capability gap,' the constant feeling of not having done enough compared to where you think you could be. She explains that this feeling never fully goes away as a founder, so it's important to still enjoy the day-to-day rather than only chasing the next milestone.
The lessons
Accept that the capability gap between where you are and where you want to be never fully closes
Don't wait until you 'arrive' to feel satisfied, since the goalposts always move
Deliberately practice enjoying the present day-to-day of running your business, not just the big wins
Questions people ask
Do business owners ever feel fully satisfied with their progress?
Anaita says no, you never fully reach a point where you feel like nothing more needs to be done, and if you did, it would actually be a sad sign that there's nothing left to strive for. She describes this as the 'capability gap,' the gap between where you are now and where you believe you could be. The key is to hold your ambitions while also learning to enjoy the present moment rather than only fixating on the destination.
Transcript
As owners, like, do we ever get to a point where we're like, okay, we're happy with everything that we're doing and there's nothing more that needs to be done? Never. Never. You never, ever, ever get to that point.
And when you do, it's actually sad because then it's like, well, that's it for me then. Exactly. I think there's this thing called the capability gap, and it's like where you are now compared to where you think you could be in the future. And we have this feeling where it's like, I need to be better, I need to be more, but I'm not there yet.
I know I deserve it. I know I deserve to be famous, like be on I'm on The Real Housewives of Sydney or whatever, but like, it's like I've got so much potential. And everyone feels this capability gap. Like, it's not unnatural to feel that way.
It's just about realising that we're never actually going to get to that destination because the destination just keeps moving. There's no end to business. It's really important for all of us as business owners to, sure, have those ambitions and want to get to that destination and have that goal. But also, one thing that I don't do well enough that I'm really trying to do is enjoy like the moment now.
Really, like, the day-to-day. Today.
