100 things I learned by becoming an entrepreneur
This is the beginning of a series of posts, each uncovering a lesson I learned from entrepreneurship
The steep learning curve of entrepreneurship is very well known and often spoken about in the startup world. Every founder gets to experience it. But we rarely take the time to reflect on it and share our countless lessons. And that’s a shame, as we gain life-changing insights along the way, learn key skills, and adopt a completely new mindset that changes us forever. It inspires me to just think about the universe of wisdom and knowledge that every founder I know embodies.
I’ve been wanting to sit down and write about this for a very long time, as I keep being amazed by how much entrepreneurship has shaped me as a person. To me, the entrepreneurial path often looks like a solution to most common problems we face, as it inevitably lets us develop strengths that automatically take care of many areas in life. The amount of personal growth and development entailed in the entrepreneurial path is truly empowering.
I hope this series will help founders take a moment to remember and appreciate how far they’ve come. More often than not, we’re so focused on our goals and on moving forward, that we fail to seize the chance to enjoy our constant progress.
I hope it will give employees some new perspectives and a deeper understanding of the nature of leadership, as well as why founders are acting in the ways they do.
Last but not least, I hope it will inspire someone to make the leap to entrepreneurship.
Lesson 1: Just start.
I got the idea for this series as I was going to bed yesterday. I don’t have everything figured out yet (format, writing style, timing etc.) and I don’t know what all 100 lessons are going to be. But I’ve learned the importance of starting before I’m ready.
It can take me forever to prep, think about all possibilities, ideate, assess, analyze and and synthesize the best approach. Complexity is the enemy of execution though. And execution is everything (there will be a separate post on this for sure).
I’ve learned to choose progress over perfection, because perfection is something we strive for when we’re insecure, don’t believe in ourselves, and allow self-doubt and fear to stop us. Perfection is a mask, a mechanism to hide or defend ourselves even when no one is attacking us. It’s an illusion. People will think, talk and do whatever they want no matter how good, bad, active or inactive you are. So, you can’t base your choices and actions on that. But you can sure base them on inspiration and your desire to grow.
The ability to take inspired action is critical and needs to be cultivated and nurtured.
Don’t underestimate inspiration when it hits. Act on it immediately, because your power lies in the present moment. Don’t wait for it to pass, and for fear and doubt to take over, because they will. When they do, know that it’s a part of the process that shows you your opportunities for growth.
Even if we don’t feel inspired, and our head is full of worries instead, all we need to do is take action, because action beats anxiety.
Action changes the status quo. Once you are in action, you start learning at a much more rapid rate, as action leads to feedback and feedback is instrumental to improvement and progress. (There will surely be another post just on feedback.) Action aligns you with doers who have similar goals, and it attracts others who will help and encourage you.
So, Just start means take the first step. Forget high standards when you are about to start. Get the ball rolling first. Put yourself out there. Step into the arena. There, you begin learning things from your experience that you can’t learn by reading books, listening to podcasts or watching webinars. Things that make you grow as a person. You develop new capabilities and attitudes by challenging and stretching yourself. And that’s what it’s all about — the person you’re becoming in the process.
Also, don’t be afraid of starting from zero. It’s where everyone starts. The good thing about ground zero is that it’s the opposite of “all eyes on you”. There’s bigger room for failure, and the consequences are smaller.
Allow yourself to make mistakes, because “the one who makes no mistakes is the one who never does anything”.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the one who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
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