Scott Porad

I am a golfer.

Yeah, yeah, yeah…you knock the ball around the course from time-to-time, but I’m not talking about that.

To say that you play golf is a completely different thing than saying you are a golfer.  Playing golf is an activity.  Like fishing or riding a bike.

Playing golf is something you do.  Being a golfer something totally different.

Golf is not like other sports.  In fact, I’m not sure if it’s really fair to call it a sport.  It’s more of an addiction.  Like other addictions, there’s a lot of reasons why you don’t want to get mixed up with golf.

First of all, golf is sort of self-inflicted torture.  On the surface, the task seems sooooo easy: just hit a stationary ball with a metal stick in the middle of a big open field of grass.  Yet that seemingly simple and easy task is invariably frustrating because more often than not it’s completely unfulfilling.

Don’t believe me?  Try it some time.  The ball never goes in the little hole at the other end of the field, but rather into the trees or the water or the sand.

Excruciating.

Then, like a masochist, a golfer will walk down the fairway and go through the entire ordeal again.  I do this with glee regularly, and I cannot think of anything more enjoyable.

And, if you think about it, it’s sort of like a startup.

From a distance, a startup seems fun and glamorous, but on the inside it’s really hard and painful.  The work is hard and stressful because it’s both unclear and uncertain with an added dash of “and you may run out of money next week” thrown in for good measure.

Lots of times I ask myself, “Why do I keep getting involved with these startups?  Why can’t I just be ordinary and get a job working at some big company, living in a cubicle farm and hapily punching in and out every day?”

Why?  Because I’m a golfer.