Knowing what you don't know.

Different opinions, focus, and expertise.

Hello everyone, this is the second instalment of my newsletter from the Burning World that is bootstrapping a startup :)

This week, I will talk about the value of expertise.

But before I do that, let me introduce a concept you might or might not be familiar with. The Hierarchy of Knowledge - or Four Stages of Competence

We all stand in different stages of that pyramid, in different skills.

For example, as an experienced Sales professional and manager, I have reached the stages of unconscious competence in several Revenue-related topics. That means that some parts of my execution have now become automatic because of the knowledge I have accumulated. And the years of uninterrupted practice. It's a very similar principle to muscle memory.

Then, there are topics where I am consciously incompetent. Topics that I know that I don't know enough about. Writing copy is one of those. B2C paid ads is another.

However, that's not the hard part.

The actual danger and where everything can go to sh%t real fast if you're not careful is the fourth and last pillar. Unconscious incompetence.

You know, like your uncles at family dinner who try to explain to you how feminism is a harmful movement or people on TikTok claiming that "they're lying to us about rain."

As ridiculous as the above sounds, it's exactly how you sound, trying to explain topics you have no idea about.

There are several areas of unconscious incompetence for all founders. Period. You don't know what they are because, well, it's in the name.

Worry not, traveller; there is a way to insure yourself from these unknown horrors!

Seek out advice often and consistently, and put away your ego. Seek out people with drastically different skill sets and perspectives from yours and ask them to inform you, challenge your premise, criticise and grow your ideas.

Look, the sooner you embrace the fact that you have substantial knowledge gaps, the sooner you'll be able to fill them.

"We live in a world where we are all pretending that we know what the f#€k we're doing, and the truth is we're all pretending until we figure it out."

One of the first things we did in this new venture was to reach out to a few select people that we asked to join our advisory board. And it's incredible that so many people from that group saw our vision and wanted to jump on board for the journey.

I will return next week with the details of who these people are as - there's paperwork to get done - and guess what? I am still four years removed from my law degree :p

To summarise

• Focus on execution for the things you know how to do very well (and if you believe you know everything, you don't)
• Seek out advisors to test your vision with them.
• Rely on expertise. Some people know the things you don't. Seek them out.And more importantly
• Don't avoid embarrassment. Look for it actively. You are constantly f#€%ing up something; aim to at least know what it is.

I'm not done yet, though.

I'm introducing the "Fail Wall", where I will share mistakes, misconceptions and outright f#€%ups.

Fail Wall Week 47

• LinkedIn is great for branding and lead gen, but it can also eat up entire days of productivity for no other reason than dopamine addiction. Be wary of your time.
• No-code doesn't mean "tech-impaired". Assume tech tasks still take you a sh%tload of time if you're not technical.
• I underperformed in several presentations because I relied too much on prior commercial competence. Don't get cocky, get your reps in, prepare.
• Last but not least, everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, takes DOUBLE the time you think it will take in the early stages. I messed up my schedule more than once.

And with that, that's all for this week.

If you want to hear more stories about start-up building, join Sara Storm and me this Friday, and let's laugh at these things together.

Here's your invite.