Success is hard
Be sure you’re working on something that, were it to fail, you could still be proud of the work you did. #
It sounds obvious. It’s so obvious that you’re probably going to stop reading in a few more paragraphs, so I’ll keep this short.
Before you embark on your next uphill startup climb, take a moment and ponder the following:
Failure is most likely.
Not to be Debbie Downer, but for every (even mildly) successful startup, there are probably a hundred failed ones. So think for a moment before you start: Will I still be proud of what I did—what I tried to do—if this doesn’t make me the next gazillionaire?
If the answer isn’t a resounding YES, you should probably wait for the next “once in a lifetime opportunity” that seems to be flooding your LinkedIn Inbox.
If you’re having a hard time answering that question, it’s probably a sign that this isn’t the right opportunity for you, but still, let me help you decide:
- People: Do the people you’d be working with seem like awesome, smart & fun people? Or do they kinda make your skin crawl?
- Technology: Does the technology seem interesting & exciting, something that you really want to learn? Or does it seem like a hack stack?
- Product: Is the product something that is helping to enrich people’s lives in one way or another? Or is it something that is kinda scamming people?
If the answer to one of those questions wasn’t positive, please consider passing. Sometimes it’s hard, the lure of riches too great. But definitely think about it. Because if you work your ass off and it still doesn’t work out, you probably don’t want to be left thinking:
those baby seals were probably going to be killed by global warming anyway.