THE DREAM IN ACTION

Be flexible.

If you have some perfect situation in your head about how your company will be formed, how it will grow, and how you’ll fair, don’t. All of your expectations will likely not be met and your “perfect scenario” will not come true. However, you do need to have vision. It seems like a catch 22, I know. You need to focus on what you want to accomplish, not how you want to accomplish it.

Know where you want to go.

Your destination should definitely be in mind. What type of product would you like to build, what industry do you want to serve, and what values will your company operate on? These are things you do have control over and can use to help guide your business. These things will no doubt help in determining your success (or failure) but this is about as detailed as you will be able to get with much accuracy in terms of what your company will accomplish.

Don’t know how you want to get there.

The less you have pre-determined the better off you’ll be. Trying to force a triangle through a circular hole will not work. So, focus on building the pieces and figuring out what type of team you have to work with then go out with your triangular team and find the market that needs triangles. You’ll be much better of this way that forcing something that just isn’t going to happen.

Shut up and listen.

If you’re focusing on the right things that your focusing on your team. The who is so much more important than the what with your business. Once you have the team in place than trust them, shut up and listen to them, figure out where you collectively will go and no you the “leader”. If you did your job well in creating a team then you got some very intelligent people, no follow in their footsteps and be intelligent by listening to your new team.

Learn.

It doesn’t matter that you’re not a developer. If you’re building software (like we are) then you need to learn. Sit with your developers, learn what they go through, and learn what they love. If nothing else you will learn what to look for in your next hire. Community managers need to sit and learn from developers, developers need to learn how to market their product, finance guys need to figure out how to get a product to market and how price affects that process. But, most of all, you the leader need to have a hand in all of it. You need to realize how your organization is structured, what everyone is working on and WHY. Start learning these things now and never stop.

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