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Imagine you're Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. You can, (says Captain Obvious), afford to buy any desk you want. Yet, as this picture shows, Bezos himself clearly prefers to work at a desk made with a door slab and 4x4 posts bolted together with L-brackets.

Why? It's one of the first desks Amazon owned. When Bezos hired the startup's first employees, they needed desks. Desks were expensive. There was a Home Depot across the street. Homemade desks made out of inexpensive slab doors? Way cheaper.

Function over form.

More tabletop desks followed over the years, partly as a way to cut costs but also to send a message. As Bezos (as quoted by Marc Randolph) has said, "It's a way of saying that we spend money on things that affect our customers, not on things that don't."

In time, door desks took on symbolic meaning. Many Amazon employees use modern versions of the original door desks. The "Door Desk Award" recognized ideas that delivered lower prices to customers.

And they still clearly have meaning to Bezos.

Which doesn't make him unusual.

I've spoken to hundreds of successful entrepreneurs, and almost every conversation goes the same way. When we talk about the financial side of being an entrepreneur -- revenue, margins, exit strategies, IPOs, cashing out -- they're interested, but far from animated.

But when we talk about the life of an entrepreneur, about how it feels to be an entrepreneur, they light up. They gush about the challenges. The responsibility. The sense of mission. The sense of purpose. The fulfillment that comes from working with, and for, a real team. The feelings of excitement -- and fear -- that come from controlling their own destiny.

Many -- or, more likely, most -- successful entrepreneurs are the product of bootstrapping: sacrificing and scraping and clawing and fighting and never, ever giving up, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

Their early struggles forged resolve. Their early struggles forged perseverance. Their early struggles continue to inform even the most successful entrepreneurs' professional and personal lives, providing an almost inexhaustible foundation of willpower, confidence, and perseverance.

Every successful entrepreneur I know says they wouldn't trade their early startup days of struggle and effort and suffering for anything. What they learned about themselves not only carries them through the tough times, it also gives them the confidence to not just think but know they can do more than they ever imagined possible -- no matter what challenges they may face.

They're grateful for the struggle. They're grateful for the suffering.

They're grateful for their version of the door desk because it made them who they are today.

A refreshed look at leadership from the desk of CEO and chief content officer Stephanie Mehta