Founder Thinking: From Paychecks to Pivots
How Being a Founder Rewires Your Brain
There’s a weird thing that happens when you go from being an employee to being a founder.
It’s not immediate. It creeps up on you like a software update you didn’t approve—but suddenly, you're not making decisions the same way. Your brain goes from “How do I do my job well?” to “How do I keep this entire thing from collapsing into a flaming crater while somehow growing it at 10x?”
Welcome to founder thinking.
The Shift: From Tactical to Existential
As an employee, your decision matrix might look something like this:
Should I join that meeting or just read the notes later?
Do I ask for a raise now or wait until Q2?
Is it too early to eat lunch? (Spoiler: no.)
Founders, on the other hand, are out here deciding things like:
Should we hire now or risk burnout for 3 more months?
Do we change our entire pricing model or just cry into spreadsheets?
Can I expense therapy?
When the responsibility is fully on your shoulders, every decision is magnified. You're no longer optimizing for your role—you’re optimizing for survival, growth, and vision all at once.
The Power of Ownership
Ownership changes how you think. When it’s your name on the dotted line, your savings (or your investor's money) funding the next experiment, and your team depending on you—it hits different.
You start weighing decisions not just on whether they're good ideas, but whether they're the right risk at the right time. You start thinking in tradeoffs instead of tasks. And you start seeing opportunity cost in everything—even your sleep schedule.
This can be thrilling. It can also be terrifying. Often, it’s both before 10 a.m.
Why It’s Worth It (Usually)
The founder’s decision-making brain is a muscle. At first, it gets sore a lot. You question everything. You make weird spreadsheets. You drink too much cold brew. But over time, you build instincts. You learn to trust them.
And while employees absolutely make important decisions (especially in great companies), the founder’s decisions come with a unique flavor of pressure: If it goes wrong, you can’t blame “leadership”—you are leadership.
Final Thoughts
Being a founder doesn't make you smarter. It just makes your decisions louder. Sometimes hilariously loud. Sometimes heart-poundingly loud. But always yours. And that’s what makes the journey—stressful, magical, unpredictable—as real as it gets.
Mark Haynes has decades of experience at the intersection of communications, marketing, design, and technology. He’s ridden the wave of many tech revolutions (including VHS winning over Beta) and can probably help you and your company surf the one that’s right in front of us - artificial intelligence. Reach out if you need a hand! Visit markhaynes.com for more info!