Startups are very counterintuitive and this is an area where you cannot trust your intuition all the time. The first thing that I want to mention startups are so weird that if you follow your instincts, they will lead you astray. But sometimes instincts about people can help to manage the interactions with people in the business world. The second counterintuitive point is not to expertise in startups. Mark Zuckerberg did not succeed at Facebook because he was an expert in startups, he succeeded despite being a complete noob at startups because he understood his users very well.
In fact, it’s not merely unnecessary for people to learn in detail about the mechanics of starting a startup, but it’s much more important to get a valuation for startup.
Young founders have an impulse on starting a startup for find out what the new tricks there are as in games. They want to find and discover the range of startup, weak and strong sides of them.
The third counterintuitive thing to remember about startups: starting a startup is where gaming the system stops working. It’s needs to gamify activities that can change people’s behavior and motivate them.
There are tricks in startups, as there are in any domain, but they are an order of magnitude less important than solving the real problem. Someone who knows zero about fundraising, but has made something users really love, will have an easier time raising money than someone who knows every trick in the book.
The fourth counterintuitive point, startups are all consuming. If you start a startup, it will take over your life, so there is a real valuable opportunity.
Larry Page who is the Co-founder of Google, worked 24/7 mode out of breath. because: number one, as the company’s daddy, he cannot show fear or weakness; and number two, if you’re a billionaire, you get zero, actually less than zero sympathy, if you complain about having a difficult life.
What you need to know are the needs of your own users. You can’t learn those until you actually start the company, which means that starting a startup is something you can intrinsically only learn by doing it. You can’t do that in college or in university, because This is just a part of a much bigger problem that you are trying to solve and twenty is not the optimal time to do it. There are things that you can do in your early twenties that you cannot do as well before or after.
Starting a startup is a really hard work and it’s does not matter the age, it’s important to realize that you are the only one who can do it well and you are ready to suffering a long time until achieve a goal.
Otherwise if you are merely unsure of whether you are going to be able to do it, the only way to find out is to try, just not now.
How to find startup ideas
The way to get start up ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas. Instead of trying to make a conscious effort to think of startup ideas, turn your brain into the type that has startup ideas unconsciously.
- Learn about a lot of things that matter.
- work on problems that interest you.
- Work with people you like and respect
- Do things that really interesting
- Imagine you in the future (Paul Buchheit “Live in the future”)
For example, Robert – Trevor wrote his own voice over IP software. It wasn’t meant to be a startup, he just wanted to talk to his girlfriend in Taiwan without paying for long distance calls.
So, here is ultimate advice for young would be startup founders reduced to two words: just learn.
Gayane Sahakyan's Personal Blog 