The four words advice

Most business advice is crap and i bet you must of thought that at some point too.

If you are like me and you follow with pursuit almost any new information coming from sources such as TechCrunch, 37Signals and the likes, then you must have read already a dozen articles on how to do and how not to do a startup business.

Now here is a shocker: even when the advice is proven, even when it is actually a story more than an advice, being lived trough, it is still basically bullshit. During the latter years i have been seen five different startup enterprises who failed, some early and with lessons learned, some miserably late. My advice: there is no such thing as startup advice! For these five instanced i’ve personally witnessed there was not a single common wisdom or book letter approach that went by without being thought about, some considered, some implemented — but, not necessarily as a result, in the end they all failed.

I am not saying everyone fails, and that those people writing those articles have a problem. I am not saying its not good to know the theory of bootstrapping. No. The information is real, however the real world is false!

For a starting young business there are so many variables involved that any rock solid advice eventually turns to quicksand under your trembling feet. So take everything you read with a grain of salt and don’t make a Kool-Aid out of the satchel of advice you find on the net.

Really the most solid assets, and at the same time advice, that any entrepreneur or startup seeder can have are:

  • talent
  • determination
  • patience
  • financial security

The only real advice you can consider: attention to self assessment.

Self assess and be real: do you have ALL of the above? No? Then the one(s) you don’t have will make you fail. Unless you are the exception from the rule of course, and by being so you’ll confirm that there is a rule.


Just as a note:

The FreshBooks’ founders had their patience tested for two whole years, their financial security almost shattered, the GitHub founder had a six figure salary already, huge talent and a whole lot of free time on his hands given his girlfriend was miles and miles away to study, should i mention other old school founders we consider deities, but which in reality basked in a network of influent people or even had trust funds?


Assessing the list above, if you are realistic, you’ll see that its very rare when a person has it all. Therefore, make sure you hire talented folks, team up with people who cultivate determination, trust patient people and, most importantly, get to market quickly or mingle swiftly with those money makers or hunger will take the “bonheur” out of entrepreneur quicker that you say IPO ☺

… oh, and do hit that recommend button, yes, that one! Thanx!