Raising children has the advantage that, when you have to give people advice, you can ask yourself: "what I would say to their children? "My baby is still very small, but I can imagine that when they are in college to how I would talk to them about entrepreneurship is such a thing. So, here is what I will tell them.
Typically, startups are very counter intuitive. I don't know what this is because. Perhaps because knowledge and entrepreneurship has not permeated our culture. Whatever the reason, in short, creating a company is something that you can never trust your intuition.
It's like skiing. When you are skiing for the first time, you want to keep the speed down, your instincts want to lean back. But if you're coming down from the mountain body lean, you sure can spin out of control. Learning to ski is to learn how to suppress a part of instinct. Eventually, you will acquire a new habit, but first you must pay the cognitive effort. When you start from the top down, and I believe you'll have a long list to remind yourself to remember what happened.
Entrepreneurship and ski are not natural, so startups also have a similar list. Next, I'll show you the first part of this list.
Counter-intuitive
First is I always refer to the list of facts: business it rather odd, if you trust your intuition, you will make a lot of mistakes. You just know this, you'll make fewer mistakes.
I have joked that YC tell founders is a feature of some of the things they care about. It does. YC partners will get to batch after batch of entrepreneurs warns they will make some mistakes, but the latter is always disagree, until one year later they came back and said, "had heard those words would be nice. "
Why entrepreneurs would ignore the views of partners? Well, this is "counter-intuitive" related to these views contrary to your intuition, they appear to be wrong. So, your first impulse is to ignore them. In fact, my description of YC jokes on it is part of the reason for its existence. Founders intuition has given them the correct answers, then they don't need us any more. Only you need is people who can surprise you. This is why there are so many ski instructor and not so much running coach.
But then again, in the "people", you can trust your instincts. In fact, the young founder, most often make a mistake in not doing enough on this point. They made that look impressive, but while they are mildly suspicious personnel joined the team. When things screw later, they said, "I knew he had some wrong, but because he looked impressive as a whole, so I ignored the ' wrong '. "
If you're considering let one person be the joint founders, employees, investors or a buyer, you have their doubts to them, so trust your instincts. If someone looks a bit sly, hypocritical and odd, don't ignore these feelings.
This is a reminder to exaggerate too much: you want to work with someone you really like. Ling Hu Zhengyu College students private space
Expertise
2nd on the counterintuitive is that know much about entrepreneurship is not something great and important things. Entrepreneurial way to success is not whether you become a business expert on this matter, but to become users of your specialists and experts to solve their problems. Mark Zuckerberg, not because he is an expert in business and success, in fact, he is a new venture, he succeeded because he did a very good understanding of the user.
If you don't learn things such as how angel funding, needn't worry. This is when you need you can learn, then finish you can forget things.
In fact, learning technical things and study entrepreneurship, not only there is no need, and in a sense can be dangerous. If I met a college dropout, he knows on the convertible notes, employee matters upon agreement and FF stock, I never would have thought he was a man, but I think it's like a warning. Young entrepreneurs make another wrong is careful to touch up appearance of a company's "potential". They went to Combs, comprehensive constructing plausible assumptions, at a good price go to financing, rent a cool Office and hire some people. By appearance, this seems to be a startup should do. But rented a cool Office, hire some people, their next step is: they came to realize that they are downright fail, because when they die like emulating all the startup form when they ignored the real basic: make something people want.
Make the shortcut
This kind of situation we saw too many, have had a special name for it: the play (playing House). Now I finally know why this kind of thing happens. Research financing of young entrepreneurs is that their entire life in the business are trained to do so. For example, wants to go to college you have to do: extracurricular activities, right. Even college courses, most of the learning is not from the heart, as if it were running laps.
I'm not trying to attack the existing education system. The fact is that when a person is taught a few things when learning process there is a certain amount of false contents. When you evaluate a student's performance, inevitably lead to such a situation, students often is the difference between a false result.
I confess, I was doing in college. I find among the many subjects may be only 20 to 30 points applicable to exams. Test Prep study in these subjects, I do not have to master the content taught in class, but lists a list of potential exam questions, and prepare answers. When I entered the final exam, I'm most curious about is what appears on the list in the final exam. This is the same as opportunistic.
Throughout the life of the young entrepreneurs have been trained as an opportunistic mode, when they start when you start a company, the first reaction is to want to be smart, it's not surprising.
Look from the outside, financing is one of the evaluation criteria for startup success (is an example of a stupid error), young businessmen always want to know what the trick is to persuade investors. We tell them to convince investors the best way is to create a truly outstanding entrepreneurial companies to achieve rapid growth, simply to tell investors it can. Young entrepreneurs want to know what the trick is to achieve rapid growth, we have to tell them that the best way of achieving this, is to develop products that people want.
There are so many YC partners and conversation between young entrepreneurs is the beginning: entrepreneurs asked, "How are we going to......" partner to answer "If......."
Why entrepreneurs always have to make things so complicated? The reason behind, I realized that, in fact, is they were looking for tips.
This is the 3rd to remember things about the business: If you want to start a business, opportunistic here. If you go to a big company, may also be able to continue to do that. It depends on how bad the company, you can find the flatter people, showing a look of great merit, and all the rest. But this won't work in a startup. Startup there is no boss for sucking up, only the user, and the user only cares about your products can not meet the demand. Business as impersonal as physics, you have to produce products that people need, the prosperity of the company met this could be achieved.
Dangerous thing is that pretending it sometimes can have effect on investors. If you're particularly good at boasting, as you are well aware of what was done, you may be able to deceive investors, perhaps even two rounds of financing. But doing nothing is good for you. Your company is doomed to eventually fail. What you do is a waste of your time.
So there is a stop for tips. In the business and there are a "trick," said one, can be found in all industries, but they are not as important as solving real problems. A completely unfamiliar with finance entrepreneurs, but can create a user like product, and familiar with all knocking at the door but flat curve of growth compared to the entrepreneurs, the former in financing easier. More importantly, one that can create user favorite products entrepreneurs, to raise funds to continue his success.
In a sense, your most important weapon failed, this is a bad news. And I think, when you start a company, when shortcuts no longer work, it makes people very excited. Very exciting because, there is a place in this world is you can use the excellent performance to win. Imagine if the world were like school or work in big companies in that case, how much will be frustrating, you either spend a lot of time on pointless things, or you can lose to one of those people who have spent a lot of time on meaningless things. If I were in school when they realize that some shortcuts are less effective in the real world, some are completely useless, so I'll be very happy. When you consider their future, that this possibility is one of the most important things to consider. How do you win in a different job, what do you want to win?
You cannot stop it
Business simply can't stop. If you start a company, it you can't imagine your life. If your business is successful, the company will take over your life for a long time: there must be at least a few years, probably decades, or maybe in the future all work to the company. So there is a real opportunity cost.
Larry page's life may be admirable, but it is also not to be envied. Basically he would fight from the age of 25, and from that time on he would not stop. Every day some of the Google Empire the only CEO to handle the problem, but as CEO he has to stand up. If he's even going to take a week off, a whole week will add up to trouble. He had to endure without complaint, in part because as the boss of the company, he could not show any fear or weakness, and partly as a billionaire if he complains that his life is too difficult, no one will feel sorry for him. This leads to an odd result, successful entrepreneurs to work as well outside of his own, no one will know.
Y Combinator has invested to date can be called the success of the company, each company founder is the same. Business not getting easier. Problem in changing it. You may worry that the construction of the London Office, who attend to repair home air conditioning. To worry about never decrease.
Start a successful startup is like raising a child, once your life is irreversible. Although parenting is a wonderful thing, but before you start this thing there are many easy things you can do. Lots of things will make you a better parent. And you may be choosing to have children later, many people in rich countries are doing.
But in refers to when you start, it seems that many people think they should be in school to start a business. You guys are crazy? University are like what? They teach students comfortably, but the establishment of incubators for entrepreneurial projects and.
Frankly speaking, the University also has a responsibility. Many students were interested in entrepreneurship. University is seen as a place to help students prepare for careers. Want entrepreneurial students want to study in College entrepreneurship knowledge. Regardless of whether the University can do that, there are pressures for them to claim that they can do, not to mention universities also face enrollment competition risk.
University institutions to teach students how to start it? Also Yes and no. The things they can teach students about entrepreneurship, but like I said before, those are not the things you need to know. Entrepreneurs should understand the needs of their users, but if you really start a company, then you will not be aware of this. Venture is essentially only learn with practice. In school is less than that, for reasons I explained above: the venture will take over your life. When you are at school, no way to start a company, because if you were to start in earnest, you are no longer a student. You can also become a student, but this would not last long.
In this dilemma, you should choose which way to go? Be a real student, is also carefully select startups? I can help you answer the questions. Not in college all the time to start a business. How to start a company is only part of the problem, the real one you have to try to solve the problem is: how to live your life. Despite ambitions for many people, the business can become a beautiful part of life, but 20 years is not the most appropriate time to do it. Starting a company is like a depth-first search, and most people at the age of 20 first is breadth-first search.
You can do it at age 20, you can't do things on or after, on an impulse, for example, into a project, or without any time limit to backpacking. Unambitious people, these are all troubling ", it is not hard to do", but for people who have ambition, but can become a valuable exploration of unparalleled experience. At the age of 20 if you start a company, and this company is successful enough, so you never have a chance to do it.
Mark Zuckerberg has never traveled to a foreign country. But he can do something most people can't do other things, such as a private jet to travel abroad. Success took many of his pleasure in life. Facebook Facebook is the same driving him and his management. Inputs to the project of a lifetime job do you think is cool, but explore the pleasures in life are also beneficial, especially when they are young. It can give you more options and see what they want to do.
There are no problems for making the choice. If you give up business at age 20, you're not sacrificing anything, and if you wait for the next, and would have a higher chance of success. 20 year old business, projects, like Facebook, chances of success are not high. You're faced with a choice, whether to devote, reasonable choice is fully engaged. But successful approach is usually a startup entrepreneur yourself success, entrepreneurship is a 20 years old is not necessarily foolish behavior.
Try
You can start at any age? I realized that I had made it very difficult business. If you feel I have not done this, so let me try again: starting a business is really very difficult. What if hard to accept? How do you know if I can handle the challenge?
It came to the fifth question: you have no way of knowing. Your present life experience will only get you probably know if you do mathematicians or professional soccer players will be. But unless your life is very special, you sure did start a company such a thing. Starting a company will change you. You are now trying to make estimates, and not just now, but the way you could grow. Who can answer it?
In the past nine years, my job is to predict whether the entrepreneur could bring the company to success. You can easily know how smart they are, and most people who read this may be smarter. Part of the difficulty is predicting these entrepreneurs have stronger, more ambitious. Maybe no one had predicted such a thing of experience, so I can tell you an expert know how it is: not much. For companies to be able to accomplish a great deal about it, I always keep a completely open mind.
Entrepreneurs sometimes think they understand. Some people think that they are very easy to get the y-Combinator, because they are easy to get in a past life test. Others wanted to know how they got accepted to y Combinator, and hope YC doesn't turned out to be a mistake led to their being accepted. Company the founders initial attitude and performance, virtually no correlation between the two.
I've read that, too bombastic in the army recruits and those quiet compared to the recruits, showing real strong possibility before the test and no higher. Possible causes are: future-proof and they have different life experiences.
If you feel scared to start a company, you probably should not venture. But if you are not sure whether you want to start, the only way is to try it. But not now.
Ideas
So until the day you want to start a company, then what are you supposed to do at University? At first you only need two things: an idea, there are partners. These two points are the same. Which we're going to talk about the sixth issue, is also the last issue: the way to receive business idea, to think not from business idea.
I once wrote a short essay. So I will not repeat them here. In simple terms, if you do a cool business idea to think about, get creative is not only a very bad problem, but very bad but it sounds good, it means that you will be aware that this is a bad idea before wasting a lot of time.
Access to good business idea is a step back. Instead of consciously thinking about it, turn your mind into a business idea formed the pattern, not plus any conscious things. In fact it is unconscious, you are not even aware it is an entrepreneurial idea.
It's not impossible, Apple, Yahoo, Google, and Facebook is the beginning. None of these companies started to do company. They are just amateur entrepreneurs project. Best venture company will almost certainly be a side project for a start, because great ideas often are unconsciously, your mind tends to reject it as a business idea.
So how do you make sense of a business idea formed patterns? First, learn more about the important things. Second, the questions you are interested in. Third, and work with people you like and respect. 3rd, and often you find partners and at the same time find business idea.
When I first wrote a text, "learn more about important things" I write is "good at science and technology". But this expression meant but is too narrow. Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky somewhere special, not because they understand technology, they are equally adept at organizing and project implementation. So essentially, you don't need to deal with technical issues, as long as you keep yourself busy enough problems on the line.
That is what problem? This is a common case is very difficult to answer the question. There are plenty of examples in history, young men to study those important questions no one at that time, especially the way their parents did not feel important. The other hand, there are plenty of examples in history, parents think that their children are wasting time, and these parents think is correct. So how do you know you're doing something truly meaningful?
How did I know that I know this. Real question is always fun, I always want to solve interesting problems, at this point I'm very generous, even if no one else cares (in fact, especially in the absence of any person interested in these issues). I found that I find it hard to spend energy on frivolous things, even important things should look like as well.
I always opted to join up with something interesting, and my life is full of such examples. Result from secular point of view after this thing has become something useful. Incubator y Combinator was that I started to do it just because it looks interesting. So I have some sort of compass to help. But I don't know what other people think. Maybe I'm thinking about this more, I more inspired in identifying the real interesting question, but the best advice I can offer is that if you're really interesting question has its own ideas, then energetically into it is the best way to prepare for the business. Moreover, this well may be the best way to live.
Although I cannot explain in General what is the interesting question, I can give some examples. If you think technology is a proliferation of irregular pattern, then each edge of a changing pattern represents an interesting problem. A reliable change the way of thinking is to put yourself into some kind of technology-let the tips of your own, as Paul Buchheit says, "living in the future". When you get to this state when other people can't figure out what is obvious to you. You may not realize that it was a business idea, but you know this is sure to survive.
For example, Harvard University in the mid 90, my friend Robert and Trevor graduate students had prepared his own voice transmission software. At that time he did not want to start a company, did not want to turn the technology into a company. He just wanted to through the network and his Taiwan girlfriend calls, without having to pay long distance charges. Because he is an expert in networking technology, it is clear that for him the best way is to turn voice into packets and transmitted using the Internet. He used to write your own software to talk to girlfriends, but that is the best way to starting startups.
If you want to become a successful entrepreneur, best thing to do at the University-although very strange-not some so-called new, professional version of the focus, "business skills" courses. But the classical version of the University education. If you want to start a company after graduation, college you should do is to study the greatest thing. If you have a real intellectual curiosity, this is what you should do naturally if you follow your heart.
The section on entrepreneurial skills, truly important industry expertise. Larry page's approach is to become a search expert. Become a search expert's approach is to genuine curiosity-driven, rather than what other hidden motives.
Ideally, founded a company to hide the motivation just curiosity. If you can translate this motivation to the end, you're going to do our best.
Finally, I have some advice for young people who will become entrepreneurs, summed up in three words: to learn.
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