The best piece of advice I got on Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is a contact sport
I was recently in a conversation with a good friend who is considering the entrepreneurship route. Going this route is a big decision and there is some apprehension. I see him making some of the mistakes I made when I noodled on my decision.
One of mentors who is a successful entrepreneur, operator and a board member gave me an unforgettable piece of advice.
Back before I started Launchable Inc I was getting serious about Entrepreneurship, and had been running myself ragged trying to decide if my idea was good enough to leap.
But, like most folks, I was making a lot of mistakes (and this is before starting):
Mistake 1 - Entrepreneurship as an Intellectual Exercise What makes Entrepreneurship exciting is the risk involved. Thus, even thinking about the risk provides the right hit of adrenaline. We fantasize about what we will do, get excited and move on. There is no aim to actually follow up. I had done this a lot in my previous life.
Mistake 2 - Determining the perfect product before starting I wanted to figure out the entire product experience before starting. For example this implies thinking about the login experience and so on.
Mistake 3 - Determining the business model before starting I wanted to stress test my business model hypothesis before starting the company. However, this was a case of siloed thinking or a few casual conversations here and there.
Until one day, my mentor said to me:
"Entrepreneurship is a contact sport. You need to be in the fight and not on the sidelines worrying about the fight"
That day, my whole life changed. I quit my cushy job and started Launchable.
You see, I was sitting on the sidelines, dipping my toes in the water, too afraid to jump in.
You can never figure out the perfect product experience in silo, you can never figure out the exact business/pricing model before starting. You can never figure out the product market fit before starting your company.
You take your ideas to the market, you pick scars, you learn and you come back to fight the next day. That’s Entrepreneurship.
So if you are sitting on the sidelines, thinking about starting a company, check to see if you are intellectually procrastinating.