Skip to content

Comment on Things we've done wrong with our startupparent

Comments

The most important/useful item on your list was #5.

Once you have a good Mentor, he or she can help you to avoid the other 4 problems in your list.

Find a Mentor who has a track record of success who can articulate how she achieved her success and learned from her failures. Buy that Mentor lunch every week or so, and get her thoughts on your pivots, the hours you're working, and your whole business model.

Informally commit to some goals in front of the Mentor and stick with them. If you get some other ideas like you want to pivot on your product, change your sales strategy, or dramatically alter your work schedule; try to satisfy your need to change by writing down the changes you're thinking about and then putting them aside to get back to the goals you set with your Mentor. At your next Mentor lunch, bring up the change ideas and get her feedback before deciding on your next short-term goals.

I'm not saying to let someone run your business or rule your life. All I'm suggesting is that you increase the speed that you're learning how to succeed by capitalizing on the successes and failure of someone else.

Like the saying goes, "A fool learns from his mistakes, but a truly wise man learns from the mistakes of others."

AboutSource Built by g1lg1l

Hackerly is an independent reader for Hacker News, built on the public HN API. Not affiliated with Y Combinator.