“Oh Yes” is a reaction of excitement you either hear or express.

Often, great to hear. More importantly, almost always practical and useful. Everyone, especially people working high requirement high effort jobs at startups should make a habit of expressing it more often.

First, a brief backstory.

A couple years ago, I quit my (by some) highly respected job from Morgan Stanley. When I accepted the job, I had just come out of college. However, it was not due to my wits, my GPA or just a phone call from my daddy.

In 4 years out of 5 years of school, I practically did not attend school mentally. Instead I was doing several internships but the most useful one was the waiter job that I got in a winehouse. That’s the place I learnt the most all my life. Other than my current job as a startup founder of course.

When I got to Morgan Stanley and moved to London, it was a big deal for most of my friends as Turkey was and still is in an economic crisis where purchasing power of young people gets diminished day by day.

Fast forward 2 years, I decided to quit and learn new things to start a startup.

When you decide to quit a job, you inevitably share it with your friends and family. It is kind of a big deal. So that’s what I did.

I must have not forethought the magnitude of reactions that I would get. They were pretty emotional and I was not emotional at all when I was taking this decision.

That’s when you hear the first word: Oh The second word will make or break it.

Bummer. This is the response you get from people who are basically disappointed or sad or concerned about you. This mostly includes family, close friends and old colleagues.

This proverb is the summary.

These people will bring you down in spirit. Mind you, their intentions are very good and kind and probably they care about you more than anyone else.

However, you should not give time or attention to these people as they are bound to be risk averse.

When you can, remove them from your time.

Excitement. This is what you would like to look for. Keep these people around. Cherish them and work with them. Push them and never stop getting pushed by them.

These are the objectivists and those that do not fall into paths but choose their own.

The people who reacted to me with an “Oh Yes” were not late to ask a second question:

And this is ideal. We must push to be the savages who have a million more things to do. Never stops and looks back.

Again: keep these people around. Nobody else. Especially in startups.

The most logical reason is that the chances you will fail are 99%. And you know this. There is no place for someone here that will remind us of that fact in a sad way.

Sad is underlined. The reason is that the 1% chances are what makes us fight even more. It is a good thing to have.