I’m Doing Something Every Day, But I’m Doing Nothing

Stella Guan
6 min readJan 3, 2022

Why the pre-launch grind hits entrepreneurs so hard

“When are your new courses launching?” said my eager students.

“Haven’t you been working on them for months?” said my mother.

“What do you do every day?” said my friend.

As I entered into Month (X) of new course development, I started to wonder what I really do every day.

How is it that every day I’m doing something, but it feels like I’m doing nothing?

How is it that every day I’m doing something, but it feels like I’m doing nothing?

Enters the “entrepreneur’s grind” — a pre-launch angst that every entrepreneur, creator, author, musician, artisan goes through before their work is ready to be released to the world.

Sometimes, it is because we run on what some would called the “old-school business model” — we test the market with surveys and focus groups, we create, we promote, we profit, hopefully.

It is the opposite of the new hot child — venture capital-backed startups that raise capital based on ideas and projections gleaned from industry data and initial business performance; run with the cash; and raise again until profit reaches enough…

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Stella Guan

Digital nomad designer and entrepreneur between the US, Europe & Asia | CEO of Path Unbound, UI/UX design school | www.stellaguan.com | youtube.com/@stella-guan