What do you really want to do?

When you come to a fork in the road, you have to ask yourself a hard question.

What do you really want to do?

It is a very difficult question to answer because it asks you to think about what you care the most about.  Inevitably it brings up a question about why you care about what you do, and it forces you to focus on what you value the most.  The question can be turned into 'what gives you the meaning of work?'

It's a hard question.  I don't think I figured it out completely.  But it's something that is definitely worth thinking about.  Because as you all know, time flies awfully fast when you are busy with daily grind of routines and it does not stop to wait for you to figure out the important question.

But once you know what it is, it's impossible to erase and undo.  Even if you cannot articulate what gives you the meaning of work, having an idea about what you stand for and what you won't compromise is a good start to this process.

Find out what you value the most.  And look for those people who have the similar values and find life's meanings in them.  Building a team around those values is where I believe the culture comes from.

Having such a team with shared values is a must-have for all startups.  I believe this culture is what keeps the team together through trials and tribulations of searching for the right business model.