Pivot like Sisyphus — The First Start-Up Founder
Now here is a story of a real Greek hero. Well not actually real but rather one we should try to emulate (as opposed to Odysseus who managed to get all his employees killed and Achilles, who was a Primadonna and foolish enough to not buy some really good boots). His name was Sisyphus, and he lived long ago in Greece. He was a lot like me; he was also a start-up founder and brilliant. The firms that people were founding back then were kingdoms and he created his own one, the present day Corinth. He was, of course, the CEO/King and was always looking to grow his business, even if it got him into trouble with the Greek gods. One such time was when he tattled on Zeus, the head god. You see, Zeus was a real jerk and had kidnapped the daughter of Asopus. Sisyphos told Asopus where he could find his daughter, which made Zeus really mad. For Corinth, it was good though, as Asopus was the river god and he awarded the city a great well to drink from and water its farms. Zeus, being a royal jerk, set out to get revenge on Sisyphus and sent Hades to drag him to the realm of the dead. Sisyphus was no fool though; he saw Hades coming and chained him up in the city. Now that created a bit of a ruckus as, suddenly, no one was dying. Anywhere! Sounds pretty good, right? Well, Ares, the god of war, did not think so as his battles would go on and on, with no soldiers being killed. So he went and freed Hades, so that things returned to normal.
Sisyphus was not done though. Before he finally did die of old age, he ordered his wife to refrain from burying his body. Instead, she was to throw it naked in the city square. This was a part of a ruse: when he died and went to Hades, he complained — “Look, how disrespectful my wife is being to me. Not even burying my body. Let me go punish her!” And guess, what? The gods let him go. He, of course, did not punish his wife. Instead, he kept on living in his great city, drinking ouzo and eating great food while enjoying his ocean view. This, unfortunately, could not go on forever. Eventually the Greek gods realized that they had been duped and dragged him back to Hades. Once there, he was punished: he was forced to complete a type of task, which since has been named after him, a Sisyphean one. Everyday he had to roll a huge boulder to the top of a hill. Once he got it there, it would roll back down, forcing Sisyphus to start over. So it was to continue for all eternity.
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Some people see the main point of the story as the boring work of pushing the boulder up the hill, only for it to roll back down, similar to many of the meaningless tasks that we may have to do in our lives.
Others see a deeper message: Albert Camus, a French philosopher, saw it as a way to create meaning in an absurd world: pushing the silly rock is rather absurd, but, according to Camus, Sisyphus can derive meaning from the struggle itself and be happy.
Unsurprisingly, I have a different opinion! I believe that the joke was on the gods. They thought they punished Sisyphus! Instead they saved him the hassle of buying a stair stepper! After pushing the boulder, I bet Sisyphus was totally shredded for all eternity! Without having to fork out $6000 for a Peloton. If you have ever seen any one on a peloton… They look silly working to hard to get nowhere (and paying lots of money to do so). Sisyphus got is all for free. Who is laughing now! Take that silly Greek Gods!
Accordingly, my advice is: Be like Sisyphus! Always look for ways to optimize the system (for you!).
