I Missed the Target a Thousand Times?—?And That’s Why I Hit It

Europe would do its entrepreneurs a favor if it would stop stigmatizing failure, and adopt more of an American approach to success and?failure.

One shot, one kill.

Well, it’s not quite that simple for entrepreneurs. Whilst most people might aim, but never shoot that arrow, some people at least shoot a lonely arrow at the target:

What do entrepreneurs do? They shoot one arrow after the other in what they think is the general direction of the target:

Sooner or later, they will hit the target, if they keep shooting:

I love this analogy. In my 10-year stint as an entrepreneur, I have seen so many people talking about entrepreneurship, but not ever giving it a try. I have seen so many wannabe entrepreneurs, trying one single time and giving up once the journey became a little rockier.

As the Founder & CEO of Yonder, I had to try and fail many times before we arrived at where we are now: Wrong tech decisions, wrong hiring decisions, wrong market assumptions. Let’s look into these in more detail.

Tech Decisions

Shooting many arrows in the general direction of the target is one thing, but as an entrepreneur, you have to shoot those arrows fast. In the early days of a product, speed is more important than stability. For a software product, this means limited scalability and edge cases that are not properly handled.

In the first days, that doesn’t matter. But later, when you have found product-market fit and your business starts to scale, those early tech decisions will need to be revisited. And because you taped together your initial product at lightning speed, you probably didn’t spend too much time on proper tech documentation, so you’ll likely need to shoot another few arrows to get it right. Straightening your initial tech stack won’t be a single shot, either.

Furthermore, don’t forget one thing: Building a stable product takes time. This means that you will lose the speed at which you can ship new features when you start focusing on stability. Your new customers will expect stability, while some of your long-time customers will question why you can’t ship new features as fast as in the past.

Hiring Decisions

Hiring is arguably the most challenging task for founders. When you set off to build a business out of nothing, there isn’t an HR department that can help you find the right people. So you will likely hire people who prove to be the wrong choice for a dynamic workplace like a young company. Other people you hire will be good fits for the initial jungle phase of your company, but once you enter the dirt track or even highway phase of your company, they will no longer be good fits and you will have to replace them. And finally, you might even choose a co-founder that proves to be unfit for the entrepreneurial journey.

Every flawed hiring decision reflects an arrow that misses the target. And just because you know that you will likely hire some misfits, you can’t stop hiring people.

Market Assumptions

This one is my favorite. When you start a company, you make a ton of assumptions about the target markets: Pricing, required features, non-functional requirements, segments. The longer you are in the business, the higher the likelihood that the market needs something slightly different than you originally thought.?

We’re back at the arrows analogy. Keep shooting more arrows, adapt your product and your company to what the market needs, or you will disappear sooner or later.

Conclusion

Shooting many arrows and missing the target all the time can take a high mental price on an entrepreneur. There is no way around getting used to it, and accepting that you look like a failure every now and then. That’s hard, but it’s necessary to achieve success eventually.

Europe would do its entrepreneurs a favor if it would stop stigmatizing failure, and adopt more of an American approach to success and failure.

Growing a company ?? in uncertain times ???? is like running a marathon?—?it demands grit, strategy, and resilience.

As a tech entrepreneur ??, active reserve officer ??, and father of three ??????, I share practical insights and experience on entrepreneurship and resilience in The Resilient Entrepreneur, my weekly newsletter.

When I’m not solving problems, I recharge and find inspiration in the breathtaking mountains ??? around Zermatt ????.

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