To Build a Business, Avoid These 5 Often Ignored Errors
#1 Thinking you can do it all.
Finding a startup you love to work for is easy. Building a company you love to work for isn’t.
Recently, a friend asked me why I stopped working for a startup I built. She loved our product and wondered why I decided to leave.
It’s loud and crowded in the Viennese coffee house, but other people’s chatter is the last thing on our minds. We are here to have an honest conversation.
I tell her I’ll be generous with my vulnerability and failure. Because in the end, this is how we learn.
Here’s an honest account of why my dream to build a thriving business that people would love had gradually turned into a wearing rat race.
1 Thinking You Can Do It All
Many founders fall into this trap. When you’re holding a C-Level position, it’s tempting to think you should do it all.
“Who, if not I, should have a solution to this problem? It’s my job to get this done”, was a common phrase I mumbled on my 14th work hour of the day.
This thinking is toxic. It puts a heavy burden on your shoulders. And, slowly but steady, deplete you from any enthusiasm. You’ll lose energy. And ultimately, you’ll quit.
By taking too much responsibility on our shoulders, you’re carrying unbearable luggage. Plus, you’ll retrain your team from joint problem-solving.
When you don’t share the hardest obstacles, your people can’t build a better business.
Silicon Valley legend Ben Horowitz offers the founders he backs with VC the same advice:
“You won’t be able to share every burden, but share every burden that you can. Get the maximum number of brains on the problems even if the problems represent existential threats.”
2 Assuming Your Team Understands What You Mean
When I told my co-founders, I want to build an app that improves how people live their lives. I had a crystal clear picture in my mind. My co-founders had one as well. Unfortunately, it was different from each other.
Listening is different from understanding. To assume your co-founders understand what you mean because they keep nodding is naïve. If I’d do it again, I’d check for understanding.
It’s universal knowledge that a joint vision and clear communication are critical for the health of any business. Yet, in the early stages of a startup, fire-fighting urgent tasks seem just a little bit more urgent.
Never compromise on taking the time to outline your vision. By skipping to detail your ultimate goal, each founder keeps working on an individual path. There might be intersections, but sooner or later, you’ve drifted apart from each other.
As a founder, you often need to make many compromises. And while some of them might be necessary, or even good, you shouldn’t make a compromise on your vision.
3 Holding Your Opinion Back
If I had a minute with my two-year younger self, I’d whisper into her ear, “Your opinion is what got you in business in the first place. So what good do you do by holding it back?”
I sat in countless meetings, silently nodding and agreeing. Meanwhile, my mind came up with counter-arguments or alternative viewpoints.
But I didn’t speak up.
I felt like my opinion wasn’t qualified enough.
Turns out, it was.
I would have improved our product and the bottom line if I had dared to share what I think. Plus, I would have been one step closer to building a company I’d love to work for.
It’s natural to feel insecure when you’re first starting with new responsibilities. And, the impostor syndrome is real.
Sharing your opinion doesn’t mean one should overrule any decision. What it means is adding a perspective to the conversation. Dare to follow through. And speak out things people in the room might not want to hear.
4 Letting Feedback Guide Your Decisions
Having a strong network is powerful. So powerful, it can even interfere with your trajectory.
It’s tempting to follow smart people’s general opinions. “What can we do better?” was a question I regularly asked successful leaders. While asking this question isn’t bad per se, making any decision based on the feedback is.
You’ll find yourself building their imagination of a great product. You might sway into a choice that doesn’t work for you.
Regardless of your network’s size and quality, be both selective and specific with the questions you ask.
Follow your plan of action. Unless you have precise advice you’re looking for, don’t put too much weigh on an expert’s opinion.
To build a startup you love to work for, you need to base it upon your long-term vision.
5 Running Side Projects
Researcher and author Benjamin Hardy once wrote:
The core theme I’ve found in my research is that entrepreneurs — those who have started a company and are actively managing it — have had a “Point of No Return” experience of some sort. Wannabe entrepreneurs have had no such experience.
In retrospect, quitting my company was unavoidable. While founding the startup, I kept my 9–5 job. I was working as an enthusiastic, well-prepared full-time teacher for 40 hours a week and running the company at 25+ hours.
Needless to say, the weeks slowly but steadily burned me out. There’s a lot of praise for building a side hustle next to a full-time job. I strongly advise against it.
Building a company while working a 9–5 depleted my energy levels. Week by week, I felt 1% less alive. And before I realized, I was as close to a burn-out as I could get.
When our schedules are so full, there’s no room for creation. No person can love work while running on survival mode.
You start to be busy instead of productive.
You’ll be reacting instead of acting.
Instead of working +65 hours every week, I’d make health my #1 priority. I’d make daily exercise, meditation, and time for a proper meal non-negotiable.
The Bottom Line
In short, here’s what I’d do differently to avoid these five psychological errors:
- Sharing and delegating your responsibilities
- Cristal clear communication of your vision
- Sharing and holding on to your opinion
- Being selective on the feedback you integrate
- Going in full-time and prioritize your health
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