What It Means to Become an Entrepreneur
Notes from a 2012 seminar in Bari about risk, execution, feedback, and learning to see your own weaknesses.
Yesterday I attended the first Follow-App seminar in Bari, titled What It Means to Become an Entrepreneur. Several ideas stayed with me, so I wrote down the ones I found most useful.
The greatest risk is taking no risk
Markets keep moving. If we refuse to move with them and never accept uncertainty, we risk being overtaken anyway. Making a decision and learning from failure can be better than waiting until competitors make the decision for us.
Done is better than perfect
Perfect is an impossible finish line. Even an excellent project can be improved, so an imperfect idea is not a reason to remain still. Put it into practice, learn from reality, and shape it over time.
Prototype instead of arguing
When a team has several ideas for a feature, discussion alone will not always reveal which one works best. Building a small prototype for each option can turn opinion into evidence. The version that performs better can then earn its place in the product.
Validate an idea from several directions
Sharing an idea is one of the best ways to discover both its strengths and its weaknesses. Criticism should be treated as useful input, not as a reason to give up. Honest criticism is free consulting; false praise teaches us very little.
Exchange report cards within the team
One way to improve is to ask every member of the team—including the founder—to describe the strengths and weaknesses they see in the others. This makes outside perspectives visible and creates room for constructive feedback that people may struggle to express in ordinary conversation.
An entrepreneur writes their own pages of success, but the first step towards improvement is being able to recognise their own flaws.