In case you have not seen the trailer of the initiative and movie about Billions in Change by Manoj Bhargava, Billionaire and the Founder of 5 Hour Energy drink you definitely should. Manoj is investing in smart technology to solve some of the most challenging problems of the future. Here is another example of a Founder who has seen success and is bringing his energy (pun intended) to solve problems. We all get inspired when we see initiatives like this and when one Man or Woman decides to change the future by inventing it. I don’t know about you but this is one of the big things about why I do what I do. I want to help those Founders who are changing the future. Startup Iceland was created to facilitate that.

Time and time again, when I personally go through some self-inquiry on why I do what I do, I remind myself there is a bigger purpose driving me. Yes, it is hard, it is difficult, it hurts. I get grounded when I see initiatives like this. Especially when there is so much debate about Unicorns and all screwed notions of what it is about starting up and building companies. Om Malik wrote an excellent article with the title “Value not Valuation is good business“.

Today is also the last lecture of How to Start a Startup before the team and project presentations. I am preparing the slide deck for “How to be a great founder“, I think Reid Hoffman does a great job in the Stanford lecture last year. My presentation to my class is going to be a little different. I believe that we have fantastic role models who have paved the way for us to learn and to be great at whatever we do. This includes being a Founder. Some founders see the light and sadly many do not. One thing that I see in Founders more recently or maybe I am starting to pay attention. They lose sight of why they are doing this really hard thing of building a company. I understand it is hard to be humble when you are starting to see victory. However, I remind all the founders that Startups and Entrepreneurship is a marathon, you cannot start celebrating because you have completed mile 1 or 5, you still got 25 or 21 miles to go. You cannot get there if you are not humble, manage your own psychology, treat people with respect, remember where you came from and who helped you along the way.

I wrote about Hubris before. I see it time and time again. My only hope and wish is for Founders and Entrepreneurs a.k.a my tribe to become leaders like Manoj Bhargava and do things of value and change the world for the better.