Running a Marathon and Building a Business: The Same Mindset
Right now, I’m just a couple days out from running another marathon. If you’ve done one, you know the feeling. And if you haven’t, that’s fine too. You’ve probably still felt something close. That mix of nerves and excitement, the pressure of knowing you’ve put in a ton of work, and the fear that something might still go wrong.
That’s why this one really stuck with me—the marathon mindset for entrepreneurs is real. The more I go through both, the more I realize they aren’t that different.
The Final Days Before a Marathon
When the race is just a few days away, your brain starts messing with you.
“Is that pain normal?”
“Am I getting sick?”
“Did I eat something weird?”
You overanalyze everything. Why? Because you care. You’ve trained for months, stayed disciplined, and now you’re this close to the starting line. The thought of something messing it up can get in your head fast.
The same thing happens before a launch. You’ve planned, built, prepared, tweaked, and tested. But now that it’s almost go time, the anxiety shows up.
“Is it ready?”
“Am I ready?”
“What if it doesn’t work?”
That mental spiral is part of it. The closer you get to something important, the louder the questions get.
Just Let Me Start
A day or two before the race, I hit a different wall. Not fear—impatience. I just wanted to get going. Let me hear the starting gun. Let me take the first step. Because once I’m moving, I can manage whatever happens.
That’s the same in business. You can only prepare so much. Eventually, you just have to hit publish, open the doors, or send that first invoice. And when you do, things start to shift. You adjust, adapt, and keep moving.
Standing still is where doubt grows the most.
The Marathon Mindset for Entrepreneurs
This mindset shows up everywhere. It’s in the build-up. It’s in the what-ifs. It’s in the early mornings when you train or grind without a guaranteed result.
It’s the emotional part no one talks about enough.
There are peaks and valleys. One day you’re visualizing the finish line, full of energy. The next day you’re wondering if you’ve made a huge mistake. Sometimes you feel strong. Sometimes you feel slow. Sometimes you’re just tired.
And yeah, there’s pain. Whether it’s the physical pain of a long run or the mental fatigue of long nights and early mornings. Whether it’s navigating failure or just holding your own against the unknown.
You feel all of it. And that’s what makes it real.
A Marathon is Compressed. Business Stretches Out. But the Feelings Are the Same.
A marathon is a fixed point in time. Months of work lead to one day, one course, one finish line. Everything builds to that moment.
Business isn’t always that tidy. Launches don’t have set start lines. You don’t always get a medal at the end. But the emotions are familiar. The doubts, the preparation, the pacing, the adrenaline, the setbacks, and the breakthroughs.
Even if you’ve never run a marathon, chances are you’ve felt like you were in one.
So ask yourself—are you waiting for things to be perfect? Or are you lacing up and starting anyway?
Closing Thought
Two days out, I’m still a little anxious. Still overthinking. Still hoping nothing goes wrong. But I’m also grateful for the reminder that this is part of it. This is what commitment feels like. This is what it means to care about a goal.
Whether you’re running 26.2 miles or launching your next big thing, that mindset is what gets you through.