- Not everyone will understand.
The first lesson is the hardest. Not everyone is ready for what you are doing with your life. There’ll be discouragement, snide remarks, disbelief and unsupportiveness (is that a word?!) Don’t let that stuff distract you. These people, the people who don’t support your dreams and passions, their feelings have nothing to do with you. Their reactions are coming from a place of defensiveness. Because they know they wouldn’t have the courage to do the same thing.
- Cut 90% of what you want to do.
Starting out, we had the biggest dreams ever. We still do. But if we tried to build all of that straight out of the gate, we’d still be building and would not have shipped anything yet. Don’t be scared of releasing stuff before you think its ‘perfect’. Its never gonna be perfect. Get to the bare bones of where the value lies and start with that small seed. All the other stuff, the 90% – that can all wait till you’ve proved that the small seed is worth continuing on with.
- Don’t be afraid to ask for help
Working in a startup is to learn at a ferocious rate. Each day brings a new challenge and something else that you don’t know. You cannot do it alone, and nobody expects you to. Don’t be too proud to admit that you don’t know what something means. Find mentors, find e-books, find resources, find conversation with other smart people. Ask for help – people are surprisingly awesome at being there when you need them.
- Complement and compliment your co-founder
Co-founding? Choose wisely, because you’ll be spending a hell of a lot of time together. You need to be able to work with your co-founder through anything – the easy, fun times and the heart-wrenching shit times. Find somebody that complements your talents and personality – it should feel like you are both bringing valuable skills and points of view to the table, as well as being able to bounce of each other and feed into each other’s good points. Make sure you can make each other laugh – there’ll be times when you will sorely need it. And finally, compliment your co-founder every single day – constant appreciation and respect will keep your partnership alive through anything.
- Feeling stupid is normal
Not a day goes by where I don’t feel stupid at something. Embrace it. If you don’t feel challenged, you are stuck in your comfort zone, and you’ll never progress further. Lack of challenge is a huge part of why so many people feel stifled and bored at their job. So really, your feelings of stupidity are contributing towards your overall job satisfaction! Go you!
- Uncertainty is your new BFF
This is certainly true of how we roll at our startup – you simply have no idea whats going on most of the time. We don’t have any grand 3 year plans, hell, we don’t even have a 3 month plan. Its what keeps us nimble and free to abandon something at a moment’s notice if we don’t feel like its working. We don’t get too attached to anything. Its just a series of small experiments that we hope will someday lead us to glory (GLORYYYY!). Be prepared to roll with changes.
- Articulate what you want clearly
This is still a tough one for me. I’m used to doing the whole office dance where you have to negotiate 8 people and wait a week to decide anything. You develop coping strategies to make the best of this situation and I have found, for me anyway, that an unfortunate side effect is that I now find it hard to just come out directly with what I want. I get flustered when my co-founder asks me to state directly what I want, being used to having to couch things in much more subtle ways. But when its just the two of you, or a small team of you, there’s no need for any of the bullshit. You decide stuff and then you do it. You may find yourself asking for something in kind of an indirect way and being utterly shocked when it has been done 30 minutes later. Its awesome! But don’t hold your mouth wide open for too long.
- Have FUN!
You can get so swept up with the craploads of work that you are doing, and stressing over activation rates, and wondering where your next meal is coming from, to actually stop and realise that you are having a freaking awesome time! I’m absolutely living my dream right now – I’m working on products that honest to god feel like my children, I get to work my own hours (night-owl shout out!), I make decisions without 10 other people weighing in, and I can work from anywhere in the world. This is my dream, and you’ll be living yours too – so don’t forget to smile!
