1. Learn to take responsibility:
Things will go bad, you will feel down. These are most common scenarios of startups. However, never blame someone else for things that happen to you. Learn to take responsibility. Remember what Shakespeare said: "the fault of what happens to us is not in our stars, but in ourselves".
[su_dummy_image width="750" theme="abstract" class="live"]
2. See it for yourself:
Building a startup from scratch takes your everything, if you really want to build one that can be scaled. Lots of hard works must be directed towards right jobs. I like Steve Blank's idea of 'getting out of building'. After working 5 months on it, I believe Steve has got it right. So, I made another poster today and made it my wall paper.
3. Read Lean Startup:
If you're going to start your business, or struggling with your existing one, I recommend you to do one thing, only one, Go and grab 'Lean Startup' by Eric Ries-this will save you if you can act on it. One thing startup must not do is 'waste'- neither energy nor money by doing unnecessary works that their customers dislike.
4. It will take time but you don't give up:
The worst part of building a startup is the 'pace it moves'. It's a grueling slow journey. You will feel every passing day, harsh, tough, lost in the middle of nowhere. There is no map to follow and no mantra to read.
But this is not a problem at all. This is how every startup on earth has been built and all startups in future will be built. Problem is with our perception and media. It makes success so cheap & easy that it hurts when you walk the path and it feels different than the one you were thought or perceived.
So, for me I made another poster today and decided to print and hang on it before my nose! It will take time but you don't give up, right?
5. There is no map, make one for yourself:
This is terrifying. You come to work without knowing what to do, exactly. You test, you experiment, and then you get what works and what does not. There is no 'Map'.
6. Don't work with people who lacks sense of responsibility:
Failing commitment, without notification, is a sin! I mean it. You have to make it no matter how busy you are, how tired you are, or how impossible it feels to make it. I have decided not to deal (read waste my energy) with people who fail commitment two times in a row. No matter how hard it becomes to find people with good sense of responsibility, I'll go alone unless I find one.
8. Failure is how you grow:
You make mistakes. You fail that how you grow. Paula Scher of Pantagram said it perfect: "you might fail while you're trying to find yourself but it's okay-that's how you grow.
9. Show up:
You don't wait for right moment, right time, right working condition to start working. You don't wait for inspiration either. You just go and show up.
