Pressure is a Privilege

Most of us are taught to avoid pressure. We're told to seek comfort, minimize stress, and create balance. And while there's truth in protecting your health, there's another truth that often gets overlooked: pressure itself can be a privilege.

Pressure only shows up when there's something at stake - when your skills, reputation, or future are on the line. If you're under pressure, it means you're in a position where the outcome matters. That in itself is a gift. Nobody feels pressure when they're irrelevant. The only people who get to feel pressure are the ones in the arena.

Instead of viewing pressure as a burden, we can flip the script. Pressure means people believe in you - someone trusted you enough to hand you a big project, a stage, or a chance. It also means growth, because just like muscles don’t strengthen without resistance, careers and character don’t develop without challenge. And pressure sharpens focus; when the stakes are high, we discover what really matters and who we really are.

Startups are default dead - we have no guaranteed right to exist. Every milestone we hit, every customer we serve, every product we ship is us earning the right to stay alive.

That’s why pressure is a privilege. It means we’re in the fight, pushing toward something that matters. Athletes know this best. As Billie Jean King said: "Pressure is a privilege." It’s the honor of being in the arena, on the stage, where the work matters and the world is watching.

I felt this deeply last year in the run-up to Dunecon, our company's annual conference. The weeks leading up to it weren't comfortable. We were pushing late nights, balancing technical delivery with logistical chaos, and trying to align dozens of moving pieces - product launches, keynote demos, and all the behind-the-scenes details that had to work seamlessly on the day.

There were moments where the pressure felt suffocating: deadlines stacked on top of deadlines, and every bug or delay felt like it could ripple out into the entire event. But when I zoomed out, I realized something important: this pressure was the byproduct of building something meaningful. It meant people were counting on us. It meant the work we were doing mattered enough to be showcased.

Not everyone gets to experience that kind of weight. The fact that our team had the opportunity to sprint toward a stage like DuneCon - that we had something worth unveiling, and an audience eager to hear it - was itself a privilege.

When the lights came up and everything clicked into place, the exhaustion melted away. The pressure we had carried turned into pride and it reminded me that those gritty hours are now a core memory of my time at Dune.

Life without pressure is life without meaning. The weight you feel on your shoulders today may just be the clearest sign that you're exactly where you should be. Pressure isn't the enemy - it's the privilege of being in the game. And sometimes, the best proof of that, is the sprint to a moment like DuneCon, where the pressure you carry turns into the impact you leave behind.

This pressure is proof of trust.
This pressure is evidence of growth.
This pressure is a chance I wouldn't want to miss.

lfg.