Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs

The other day, I was asked to prepare my best "advice for aspiring entrepreneurs."

Putting this list together made me realize how many mistakes I made in my early days, and how those mistakes were often the most valuable lessons.

Here's my best advice for anyone thinking about starting a business:

Practice self reflection

Starting a business is hard. It’s not for everyone. You can make a big impact and build a great career without starting your own business. Think hard about what you really want from your career, and define your own version of success. Practice self reflection and make a habit of checking in every few months to see if you’re on track.?

Mission beats ego

Understand what motivates you to want to start a business. “Being my own boss” or “getting rich” are weak motivators when things get hard, and they’re selfish. A stronger motivator is a mission; a higher purpose that you believe in and want to contribute towards. Improving healthcare, addressing climate change, designing better experiences; these are all “missions” that someone might believe in. Mission driven entrepreneurs are better equipped to deal with adversity, because missions are strong motivators and others will gladly support you when you’re trying to make the world a better place.?

Build a great team

Before you start building a business, invest a lot of time and energy building a team. Great teams build great businesses, not lone geniuses. Find one or two other people who believe in the same mission as you. Great founding teams have complimentary skill sets, equal levels of motivation, and tremendous mutual respect. Take time to build your relationships and become true friends, not just business partners.?

Focus on problems, not solutions

Successful entrepreneurs are obsessed with understanding problems. The better you understand the problems someone is facing, the better you can design a great solution. Do your research, look at the data, and, most importantly, talk to potential customers. Be able to describe their problems better than they can. Don’t fall into the trap on insisting you have a great solution when you really don’t fully understand the problem.?

Start with a niche market

It’s easier to design a great solution for a very specific problem. Targeting a niche market makes it easier to get to know your target customers, deeply understand their problems, and build a compelling solution. It also makes it much easier to market and sell your solution once it’s ready. Amazon started by only selling books online, and once they succeeded in that market, they expanded to others.?

Explore many solutions

There are many ways to solve any given problem, and you won’t know which one is best until you try them. Once you’ve determined the specific problem you want to solve for a niche market, brainstorm several possible solutions. Build cheap prototypes that you can quickly test. Don’t settle for the first promising solution, keep testing others too. Always ask yourself “is there another way to solve this problem?” and even “is this the right problem to be solving for?” Be willing to pivot and adapt in light of new information.?

Don’t fear failure

Not everything you try will work. Failure is a normal part of the process. So long as you learn something, you can move forward wiser and more resilient. Take calculated risks and try things that make you uncomfortable. Don’t be afraid to admit when you are wrong. When something you try fails, it doesn’t make you a failure as a person.?

Study your customers

Ask for their feedback, collect data on what they do, and listen to what they say to others. The insights for a better solution and a more successful business lie somewhere in this information. Don’t lose touch with your customers, especially as your business grows.?

Commit to constant improvement

Great businesses are made up of great people and great processes. Focus on improving both. Invest in your team so they can perform better every week. Make your processes more efficient each time you use them. Make your solution stronger each time you deliver it. Reflect on your experiences and learn from them so you don’t repeat mistakes. Get a little bit better every day.

What do you think? Anything to add? Cheers!