The Middle: When Shit Gets Real.

Photo by Simoooooooonn

Most people love to talk about beginnings. Their first idea. The garage workshop where the product finally took shape. The late nights where everything comes together the way it should.

And everyone likes to talk about their perfect world. The part where things look stable. Where the systems work like they should. Where the income is dependable. And where the weight of running a business feels manageable.

Hardly anyone talks about the middle.

The middle is where the adrenaline runs out and you get tired. It is where the numbers start to matter. It is where the stakes quietly get real, because you are no longer invisible. 

Right now, that middle is heavier than it’s been in a long time.

• In craft food and beverage, people are drinking less. Gen Z largely walked away from alcohol years ago. Inflation is uncomfortably high while wages are staying flat. Nights out get spaced farther apart. Demand turns cautious and keeping inventory feels riskier than it used to. Distribution still looks tempting but it is just as dangerous.

• In nonprofit work, government funding is thinning and donors are holding onto their money tighter. Operational costs keep rising, including the need to modernize with new tech and AI. Employee retention is at an all-time low as private sector wages pull talent away. The public is more skeptical than it’s been in years. Trust is fragile. Leadership burnout stays close to the surface.

• In the outdoor and overland world, tariffs are killing the bottom line. The old supply chains are stretched thin and new ones are not obvious yet. Events cost more to run every year. Travel costs more for everyone. Gear is no longer an impulse buy for most people. Brands feel the shift in quieter order volumes and longer pauses between launches.

Different worlds, but it’s the same pressure.

This is the phase where that romantic story you told yourself at the beginning of this journey is stress-tested. Not by critics and not by competitors, but by reality.

This is where clarity stops being a concept and starts being survival.

You start to see where you cut corners early. Where you avoided hard decisions because things still felt exciting. You see where you started creating for the market instead of the problem. You start to see where momentum carried you before a real foundation existed. And now that foundation is starting to crumble.

None of this makes you wrong.
It makes you human.

What breaks most often in the middle is not what you’re producing. It often isn’t even cash flow. 

It is direction.

It happens to every founder at some point. The noise gets louder and the opinions multiply. Opportunities stack up and somehow still lead nowhere. People start needing answers from you instead of cheering for you.

• This is where founders begin to second-guess their own instincts.

• This is where nonprofits drift toward steady funding instead of purpose.

• This is where makers start to chase scale instead of craft.

It happens quietly. Slowly. And often with the best intentions.

This middle area does not demand big vision speeches. It demands clear decisions.

• What stays? 

• What goes? 

• What will you no longer carry just because you always have?

Most people rush through this phase. They try to outrun it or grow past it. They try to wait it out.

But here’s the thing: the middle is not something to escape. It is something to understand. Because whatever comes after this will be built on what you choose to keep when the pressure is on.

If the middle feels unclear right now, you don't have to sort it out alone.