Not necessary to fail to be successful

I didn't struggle when I started Agilemania ( www.agilemania.com ), so I have no struggle stories to share. I learned the business before I started offering services. I knew exactly what's needed to start on day one, and I was well aware of consumer expectations and behavior. That doesn't mean I knew everything. Here is a list of things that I was aware of:-

1. I needed a website but wasn't knowing what elements of the website consumers will like, so we keep experimenting.

2. I knew that we need a great team, and I had to take the lead to build a team of great minds. Building a team wasn't easy, and they will not agree with my ideas even today. ??

3. I needed a marketing team to create a market for us, but which market and how to reach out to our consumers wasn’t an easy job.

4. No salesperson for the next 6 months till we really need someone to assist us. No target for the sales team.

5. Content and engagement are key to be successful but developing content and engagement is not easy. We can't buy content either.

6. Cooperation and transparency with partners. Develop an ecosystem to help grow everyone. Never target to kill competition but don't forget to establish your unique identity.

7. Stay away from the majority of conferences and sponsoring conferences. Again, conferences never gave me a valid reason to participate unless I want to make money by organizing these conferences.

8. Say NO to earn the best company award by paying money. They send emails almost every day.

9. People hate unwanted emails, so keep it minimal or no email campaign. I didn't do much on that part. That doesn't mean we don't want but have not yet figured out how to do better.

Now, a simple question to answer. Isn't it better to learn to swim before jumping in the lake vs. swimming to survive because you have jumped in the lake? 2nd option for me is like either you were dreaming or someone has thrown you in the lake. Agility doesn't mean learn swimming to survive, so what can it be?