As a startup founder, I have heard the phrase “it’s about the journey” more times than I can count. And I will be honest. When cash is tight, progress is slow, and the destination feels like the only thing that matters, those words land hollow. They sound like something people say when they have already made it, when they can afford to be philosophical about struggle. When you are in the grind, the journey does not feel like something to celebrate. It feels like something to survive.
But I have been thinking about this differently lately. The phrase is not about ignoring the goal. It is not about pretending the destination does not matter. It is about recognizing that the real value of the journey is who it forces you to become.
The tough middle is where this happens. The uncertainty. The setbacks. The long stretches without applause. This is not the part anyone talks about in the success stories. It is not the part that gets celebrated. But it is the part that matters most. This is where resilience gets forged. This is where clarity emerges. This is where discipline stops being a choice and becomes a necessity. This is where conviction gets tested and either breaks or hardens into something unshakable.
The destination may validate the effort. It may prove that the work was worth it. It may give you the outcome you were chasing. But the journey transforms the founder. And in startups, that transformation is often the real asset being built.
I see this now, looking back at the hard stretches. The moments when I thought I was just trying to survive were the moments I was actually learning the most. I was learning how to make decisions without perfect information. I was learning how to keep moving when nothing felt certain. I was learning how to lead when I did not feel like a leader. I was learning to trust the process even when it felt broken.
None of that learning happened at the destination. It happened in the middle. It happened in the grind. It happened in the moments I wanted to skip.
“The journey transforms the founder, and that transformation is often the real asset being built.”
So when someone tells you it is about the journey, they are not dismissing your goal. They are not telling you to stop caring about the outcome. They are telling you to pay attention to what is happening to you along the way. Because the person you are becoming is the thing that will carry you through the next challenge, and the one after that, and the one after that.
The destination matters. But the journey is where you become someone capable of reaching it. And that is the real work.
