When Peter Chen sat down to put in writing this text, his health and fitness website was only a yr old. He had never hired anyone before. He had never fired anyone.
There were many things he had never done before, he said: “I had never started a company in Delaware. I had never spent days on Excel accounting, signed an office lease, paid the IRS, saved a crashed website, negotiated with a potential buyer or been responsible for paying six people.”
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These are things Chen found out. But the biggest challenges, he said, were personal: “I’ve never been so busy, so behind, so dissatisfied with how much I can accomplish in just 24 hours of every day. At the same time, I’ve never been happier. I’ve never been more optimistic, more excited about what can be accomplished, more able to honestly say I love every second of what I do. Now I can.”
With all this in mind, Chen shared 7 lessons he’s learned in a yr of being an entrepreneur:
- Starting something for the first time is really, really hard. Imagine the hardest thing you’ve ever worked on. Now imagine that it’s the most significant thing you’ve ever done. Then imagine that you simply have no idea what you’re doing. Most startups are different, and most founders’ motivations and ambitions are unique—but irrespective of what it is, if you think it’s going to be easy, you’re incorrect. This experience was much harder than anything I’ve ever faced. I really like that challenge. A startup is a to-do list with an infinite scroll. It’s true that starting a startup has never been easier, but that doesn’t mean starting a startup is even a little bit easy.
- Sometimes you have to make your personal mistakes. There are an incredible variety of good and experienced entrepreneurs/investors/models online who repeatedly share their advice ( Christmas is coming, Fred Wilson, Mark Cuban, Chris Dixon, Ben Horowitz, Albert Wenger, Rob Him, Bijan Sabet, Brad FieldJason Goldberg, to call a few of my favorites.) You + Quora can answer almost any query. But you will still screw it up. I spotted I’d probably make a lot of mistakes, but I spotted I needed to make a lot of them for myself. Example: It’s much easier to quickly realize that you could fire someone who’s not doing well because they’re hurting the culture of the team than to totally realize that you simply’re doing so and then take motion. I knew, but I didn’t know I actually know until I tasted the mistake in my mouth. And it tastes salty.
- It is vital to ask others for help and understand this. This has been one of the hardest lessons for me. I’m the worst at asking for help, but I’m making progress. Entrepreneurs are naturally confident, positive and optimistic, but if startup success is the results of a million random aspects, then inspiring help from others is among the most significant. Asking for help is humbling, but the moment you truly eat your pride, tell it prefer it is, and share what you would like, every thing can change. If what you’ve built is truly meaningful and impressive, let your guard down. Share your hardest challenges, your biggest worries, your scariest fears, and people will help if they’ll.
- Surround yourself with friends who will remind you ways amazing you are when you would like it and will concentrate to you when you would like it. In my experience, entrepreneurship is a little bit of a rollercoaster: Sometimes it looks like every thing is falling apart, and other times that big thing you’ve been working towards might actually be achievable. Friends could be an escape, sure (and you would like an escape, badly), but they will also be the outside support you would like the most. It’s hard to maintain up with your folks on a regular basis when you’re starting a business, but each time I do, I try harder to allow them to push me in ways in which I personally need pushing (and, by the way, attempt to do the same in return!).
- Sharing what you learn with others pays off in a million alternative ways. Through Greatist, I have discovered that taking the time to show others has paid off many times over with vital lessons. I began classes on Sharing skills mainly because we have two great friends, Peter Boyce and Scott Britton, they asked me to do it. I taught (*7*)How to grow your organic unique visitors from 0 to 250,000 in lower than 6 months without expectations… and I have taught several others since then. Each time I used to be shocked at how much I have I have learned from individuals who attend classes and those that join me later. I have made great friends, began working with big brands, met some amazing people and exchanged amazing ideas with others because of them.
- Schedule specific time for considering and creativity. Emails, meetings, sleep, repeat… and suddenly a week has passed with no time to think. This may sound a bit silly, but block out time on your calendar to only think. I literally began scheduling “think time” on my calendar at regular intervals, and I ask everyone on my team to do the same. Also, many of my most creative ideas come from doing, seeing, or experiencing something completely different. Some of my best ideas come from watching a random movie, going to a jazz concert, or taking time to explore a recent place.
- The only solution to build something different is to do something different. As a good friend of mine, Jason Jacobs from Runkeeper, once said in an interview, “We don’t have an exit strategy, we have a long-term horizon. We’re digging in and we’re going to be fighting through this for a long time.” One of the lessons I’ve learned is that it’s becoming easier and easier for people in the startup community to get caught up in the concept that, “This is just what everyone else is doing.” Of course, it makes sense to do what everyone else has done to suit your definition of success, but I’m learning that success for me is different. I’m realizing more and more that to realize something different, we have to do various things.