

Ask HN: What is the most important single thing you'd tell a new entrepreneur? - hlmencken

Anything...advice?
======
ivan_ah
IMHO, the most important thing for an entrepreneur is to mentally decouple
his/her self esteem and feelings of self worth from his/her project:

    
    
       You are not your startup! 
    

A girlfriend told me that a long time ago, but unfortunately I didn't listen
to her at the time. It is a common pattern for smart young folks
(overachievers) accustomed to positive feedback from the external world to
"feed" on external validation. Fuck that! Your value as a human is in your
(almost) infinite capacity to grow, adapt, build, and love---not because of
the js/py/ru code you can produce or the money you plan to amass.

Beware of bosses, VCs, and project managers who feed your need for external
validation. You don't need anyone to tell you you're good.

Basically what I'm saying is hustle, put in the hours, kick ass, but also
CHILL. There's no rush to prove anything. Rome wasn't built in a day. Easy
does it. There's an old saying that goes "The bitch in haste gives birth to
blind pups"[1].

________

[1]
[http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0000...](http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0000606.php)

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richsin
Why only one? I would share whatever I knew.

1\. Start to develop a work/life balance. No one can tell you how many hours
you should be working or what to do on your downtime. This is just the
beginning - you CAN prevent burn out.

2\. Start to network, find other entrepreneurs and listen to them. One day you
will need someone to listen to you. Not all advice is actionable, but it's
crucial to get multiple perspectives so you can play it out in your head.
Eventually you will have enough plays in your head to tackle most, if not all
problems.

3\. Get your product or your voice out there. You need some validation of your
ideas and thoughts. I tell you this because I wish I did this earlier.

4\. Most of the best advice you will ever receive will be the regrets of
others.

5\. Capital is to an entrepreneur as a job is to an employee. Idea's are
worthless if you cannot execute them. Cost to open a business is at an all
time low. Low is not free.

6\. Don't fail broke. Know when to cut your losses. I have learned that most
people don't cut their losses because they are guilty that they have not done
enough to give their business the best shot possible. On the flip side, if you
are putting your all and you still 100% believe in your product, you need to
get that passion and drive in front of investors to buy yourself as much time
as possible. These have been the best times of my life, win or lose, never
regretted a moment.

7\. Don't ever stop yourself from doing whatever it takes to be successful. At
my current startup, I am in the field everyday (I am building a marketplace),
answering calls and doing physical work that is far below my pay grade. Why?
Because at this point of the business I am far better off doing what I am
doing now and to grow accordingly. Don't build an illusion of success by
having office space, hiring people to do things that you can do yourself at
first and creating the impression that things are happening. Let it come
naturally.

8\. Finally, Learn to build a life without regrets. There is are no hard and
fast rules. You will regret shit, fix it immediately. Move on.

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callmeed
Ask yourself: "Am I just trying to _start a startup_ for the sake of having a
startup?"

In my experience (I've bootstrapped some companies, had moderate success, make
decent money), good startups and entrepreneurs are born out of simply solving
a problem–not from "trying to build a startup". PG and Zuckerberg had this
conversation at Startup School in 2012. PG said something to the effect of "I
wish more founders were started by the startup" ... that, in my opinion, is
the crux of the matter.

It is now popular, cool, and noteworthy to be a startup founder. There are
more investors, incubators, and boot camps than ever before. Development costs
are at an all-time low. Even here in San Luis, I meet so many Cal Poly kids
who are in the entrepreneurship program. I worry they'll go from school-to-
startup and never live or work in an environment where they can experience
real problems that need solving.

But none of that matters if you're not solving a problem–usually for yourself.
When you do, you find other people have the same problem. If you solve it,
they will pay you. It's that simple ... but almost everyone has it backwards
now. They have their heart set on being a startup founder, so they compromise
on the core principle in order to maintain that image. And they build nothing
of value–just another to-do list app or useless startup-serving-startups
service.

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azizali88
Advice #1: Get Good at Making money.

Want more elaboration? Jason can explain:
[http://www.inc.com/magazine/20110301/making-money-small-
busi...](http://www.inc.com/magazine/20110301/making-money-small-business-
advice-from-jason-fried.html)

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staunch
First timers should always charge money and judge their success at first
entirely based on net revenue. User adoption alone can be good but it's much
harder to be sure about.

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apunic

      "You are your startup"

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bliti
Sleep on it.

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jwheeler79
read way to wealth by ben franklin

