Categories
Archive
New Content
Hustle. Sleep. Repeat.
Last Thursday, I had the distinct honor of acting as emcee for the NEXT event, celebrating emerging entrepreneurs in Massachusetts. The event was organized by the MA Office of Small Business & Entrepreneurship and hosted at the UMass Venture Development Center, both of whom did an amazing job.
Around 125 people came to celebrate four startup teams from Massachusetts that Businessweek identified as among the 25 best entrepreneurs under 25 years old. FTR, this is the second year in a row that Massachusetts produced more promising young entrepreneurs than any other state, including California which has almost 6 times more people than Massachusetts. Pretty amazing.
- Emergent, Jesse Gossett, Jayson Uppal, Chris Jacobs
- IdeaPaint, John Goscha, Jeff Avallon, Morgen Newman
- SCVNGR, Seth Priebatsch, John Valentine
- Wistia, Christopher Savage and Brendan Schwartz
Diane Hessan of Communispace was the keynote. She is an awesome role model for aspiring entrepreneurs: smart, funny, collaborative and highly successful – another incredible female entrepreneur in Massachusetts. Next time you see Diane, ask her to tell you about the hobo entrepreneur ….
My favorite part of the event, though, was John Goscha’s anecdote about a fellow entrepreneur who had experienced a spate of recent successes. When asked how he did it, the entrepreneur replied simply “I get up. I hustle. I sleep. Then I do it again.
I think that really sums it up. Entrepreneurship is hard work. Nothing comes easy when you’re forging new territory. There’s no time for self-pity. You just have to commit yourself to your vision and then hustle like mad to get there. That’s also why it’s so important to care about the business you’re launching. There’s just no way you can keep up the pace necessary to succeed if you don’t love what you’re doing.
I know the MassChallenge team and I are having a blast. We’re especially excited to shift our focus from planning to actually supporting entrepreneurs. They are the reason why we are working so hard to make MassChallenge a huge success. It’s a nice reminder to meet people like Diane Hessan, John Goscha and the other entrepreneurs in attendance at NEXT – all of them have taken significant risks and have hustled relentlessly to achieve their vision and improve their community. Made me proud to be around them.
So, to all you entrepreneurs out there:
stop reading and get back to hustling
Author: John Harthorne is the CEO and Founder of MassChallenge.
Featured Sponsors
Hustle, Sleep, Repeat
Great advice John. Good thing you kept the post short. ;)