The opportunity to build something from nothing is one of my favorite parts about a startup.
Specifically, consistently shipping every day, maybe twice a day. It feels negligible at first, but then you look back after several weeks and realize that you’ve built something from nothing.
The tool or feature gets subsumed into the product or the everyday process, and it’s easy to forget about that little creation. Several months into a startup (if you’re doing it right), you can look back and see several of these creations alive and well in the business. Your unique stamp on the machine.
That feeling is incredible and surprisingly hard to find in a big, bureaucratic company.
Whenever I feel frustrated at work, I just remind myself to keep shipping every day and then stop to look back every few months to see the progress.