Hey Reader,

One of the things you only discover by being a founder is that... You never arrive. The goal posts always move.

We know this. Build the product, no time to celebrate, now you need a customer. Sign the customer, no time to celebrate, now you need to fix the bugs. Fix the bugs, no time to celebrate, now you have to keep your customers. It's always "just one more thing."

Perhaps my fave way of explaining it, is as a founder you are always standing on the edge of a cliff, when something great happens you are allowed to take 2 steps back, when you do, someone then pushes you back to the edge.

Nothing you do at any single step is ever enough. Thats a feature, not a bug :)

This isn't a startup thing. It's not even new.

This exact feeling of being in motion but never arriving is 2,500 years old! It’s called Zeno’s Dichotomy Paradox.

Zeno argued: in order to reach a destination, you must first get halfway there. Then halfway again. Then halfway again. And so on.

Which means: you’re always closing the gap… but never fully arriving.

You’re always getting closer, but it never feels like enough. Welcome to startups. Sound familiar?!

To founders? It’s a description of startup life.

You’re always moving.
You’re always improving.
You’re always almost there.

But you never actually land. Because the minute you do, a new gap opens up in front of you.

Ask any founder who has done it before, there’s a particular kind of exhaustion that sets in around year three. It’s not the adrenaline wearing off. It’s deeper. More existential. It’s the staring at the ceiling, asking yourself: “Will it always feel like this?” kind of feeling.

You’ve hit your milestones. You’ve grown. You’ve raised some money. Somehow, you still feel like you’re scrambling. Still halfway.

Your friends with “normal jobs” are buying houses, taking vacations, talking about the stock market! Meanwhile, you’re on your third “this is our breakout year” speech to the team.

In private? You wonder if the finish line is actually any closer.

This isn’t failure. This is Zeno’s revenge.

So why is this a newsletter? Because this messes with founders, especially first-timers because you were told the journey had stages:

Idea → MVP → PMF → Growth → Scale → Exit

But that’s not what it feels like.

It feels like:
Idea → Rejection → Slight traction → Confusion → Spike → Churn → Pivot → Repeat

It feels like you’re always halfway to product-market fit. One bug away from the product doing what it promises. One feature away from a big customer buying.

Halfway to fundraising.
Halfway to clarity.
Halfway to feeling like you’re finally there.

Again. That’s not failure. That’s Zeno.

What makes it worse, is the toll compounds. Halfway in year one has a different weight than halfway in year five. The psychological burden gets heavier, not lighter. The cost to your health, your relationships, your sense of self accumulates.

The more you invest, the more time compresses, making every halfway point feel more urgent than the last. It seems to get worse, not better.

The better you get, the more you understand the market, your customers and your vision, the faster the f’n treadmill goes. You never get to enjoy your new pace before it speeds up again.

This is why founder burnout isn’t just about hours worked. It’s about the perpetual state of almost-but-not-quite. The cognitive load of always being on the edge, never fully arriving.

So maybe, stop trying to arrive?

The trap is thinking there’s a “done.” A place where it clicks and stays clicked.

There is no end. Just another level of clarity.

You have to learn to stop waiting for that moment. Because it doesn’t exist.

Instead, build the muscle to keep moving especially when you’re close. Understand how to measure what is the correct amount of "done" right now that enables the immediate goal to be achieved and balacnes time over target.

Close is where doubt creeps in. Where energy dips. Where momentum stalls.

And that’s when most founders stop. They mistake the halfway feeling for being stuck instead of seeing it for what it is…. progress with more perspective.

So if, for a second, we agree, there is no mythical arrival moment. You have to weaponize the halfway state.

You have to build decision frameworks knowing the targets will move. Design your personal sustainability differently. Measure progress differently.

The halfway state must become your competitive advantage.

While others are waiting to feel like a goal has arrived or some "made it" moment before making big bets and bold moves, great founders operate from the understanding that bold moves only happen while standing on that cliff edge, not from some imaginary solid ground.

You have to embrace perpetual incompleteness, not as resignation, but as strategy.

You have to develop rituals that acknowledge progress without halting momentum. Celebrations that honor milestones without pretending they’re finish lines.

So yes, on customer 1, 100k ARR, something great, open that bottle of Kirkland whisky, just make sure you are mapping out customer 2 before the burn fades...

Not because you shouldn’t enjoy the moment, but because you have learned the rhythm: celebrate briefly, then start the next halfway journey before someone pushes you back to the edge.

Founders have built their entire operating systems around this reality:

So. Design your life for endurance, not sprints & embrace the cliff edge as where genuine innovation happens.... And perhaps most importantly, find ways to derive meaning from the motion itself, not just from arriving at destinations.

There is a trait a lot of founders have after they have done this a few times, they love the game, more than the destination.... because they see it for what it is.

Because the job isn’t to arrive. The job is to build while halfway. The job is to lead while uncertain. The job is to decide on the cliff edge.

Perhaps the job becomes learning to love the vertigo!

So, if you got this far.

You are not behind. You are not lost. You are not stuck.
You are just halfway. Again. And again. And again.
To learn, adapt, and repeat inside an infinite loop.

The distinction between good founders and great ones isn’t that great ones eventually “arrive.”

It’s that great ones master the art of building while halfway. They turn Zeno’s curse into their superpower.

And just when you think you’ve got a handle on your own halfway state. Someone else looks at the same progress and sees something totally different. Remember the blue/gold dress! Perception is a whole other paradox.

As always, if I can be of service, feel free to grab time.

LFG.

-- James

​

Not A Subscriber? Join 140k+ StartUp Founders reading my weekly newsletter offering tactical insights to start, scale, and fund their startup. Real advice from a 3x exited founder. ​ Join Now

---

​

‪8424 Santa Monica Blvd, Suite A523, Los Angeles, CA 90069
​Unsubscribe · Preferences​