Feedback Cycles
Feedback cycles are incredibly long in the VC/start-up world.
A typical fund has a 10-year lifetime - that is, investors (LPs) commit capital to a standalone fund ‘vehicle’ (corporate entity) and expect that vehicle’s assets (its start-up investments) to be sold, with proceeds distributed, within 10 years.
Let's put aside the reality that it rarely works that way in practice.
Even if it did, 10 years would be an incredibly long time to wait to know if you're any good at something. Sure, you find out pretty quickly about your failures - that's one of the hardest emotional aspects of this job. But you won't know for sure if you're any good until the full end-to-end process has been concluded.
On top of the emotional and psychological impact, it's also unhelpful from a learning perspective. This career requires in-motion learning: corrective action based on what you think the long-term outcomes will look like. Again, you can refine your approach to avoid repeating the same mistakes, but it's tough to know what positive reinforcement you can apply, given the jury's still out on the long-term verdict.
It's the opposite of rapid iteration: it's a slow, straining, introspection-heavy approach that burns intellectual and emotional calories throughout.
All I can do in the short-term is focus on controlling the controllables and trust that the maths works out. Like most of the best things in life, there isn't really a shortcut.