Q. When do you know if you’re really passionate about what you’re building?

When you can go to the extent of even working for free for a company that’s already doing it. Sure, you can start off on your own, but the excitement of starting up with people you know will supersede the idea itself, especially for first time entrepreneurs.

Work hard, sleepless nights, highs & lows, blah..blah.. have all been there but there is something different this time around – a chase to get to that point which I can see so clearly even at such a large distance. I’ve always loved working for Interviewstreet but the last couple of weeks have been something special.

The closest analogy I can think of is a comparison between arranged and loved marriages. While I don’t have any experience in either of them, I guess I’ve been living my startup life like an arranged marriage guy – the scenario where you like the idea of marriage (startup), more than the girl you were introduced to (idea) before marrying. It’s akin to the way startups are born in the valley. A lot of successful companies have been built this way.

But for the very first time, I’m completely kicked about building this than the thought of building a massive company even though that’s the state you might want to reach. It’s definitely like love where you are in chase of the girl than the idea of marriage itself even though you want to get there.

I’ve always been in a sprint mode – wake up, iron out bugs, ship a feature and iterate. I’ve been trapped in a myopic view. For the first time, I zoomed out to see the bigger picture and wasn’t that fascinating! It changed my outlook. I’m focused so much on the product including the tiniest details of it.  I can see the goal which enables me to take bolder decisions that’ll have a higher impact on the company, defying a lot of norms, just to get there.

I don’t care if I don’t become rich or the company isn’t worth a billion dollars or whether I work as an employee/founder, etc. (which used to run in my mind). All I want now is to just see it grow.

It’s a very ambitious hard goal that I’m chasing but it’ll be one of the most valuable thing EVER created on the web if done well. Imagine if I were to say that you’ll be able to control the pace at which the world will advance if we built this. That’s the sort of potential this product has. It’s a superset of what we are currently on.

It’s okay to try and fail climbing a Mount Everest than be happy climbing a 500ft hill. And I’m up for the long journey and hopefully will reach the top. Stay on for the launch. And if you’re interested in joining a great team in the expedition, let me know [vivek AT interviewstreet] or you can drop by at our office.