The Founder's Lie About Comfort Zones
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The Founder's Lie About Comfort Zones
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Re: The Founder's Lie About Comfort Zones
#2Guys - OP here.
I know the article sounds like blunt rant but it's a topic very dear to me as i regularly mentor startups. Many of them hide in the mentioned patterns.
If you know good articles / links on how to prioritise your work and assess missing skills in your founding team please be so kind and share them here. I will add them to the article afterwards.
Thanks!
Re: The Founder's Lie About Comfort Zones
#3while I agree & have experienced this myself very often (-> tax-report, accounting, micro-managing :)), I think you could have gotten to the point quicker & more precisely in this blog-post :)
Re: The Founder's Lie About Comfort Zones
#4while I agree & have experienced this myself very often (-> tax-report, accounting, micro-managing :)), I think you could have gotten to the point quicker & more precisely in this blog-post :)
Thanks for the feedback. Will try with the next one.
Re: The Founder's Lie About Comfort Zones
#5Actually it might be good to focus on what you do best (up to a point): If your a good coder, make an awesome product. If you are an awesome marketeer, use marketing to your advantage.
I think that the problem lies in busywork instead of creating value, not in doing what you do best (and if you do that, good chance that you can find people who are good in waht you need that will join you).
Re: The Founder's Lie About Comfort Zones
#6Actually it might be good to focus on what you do best (up to a point): If your a good coder, make an awesome product. If you are an awesome marketeer, use marketing to your advantage. I think that the problem lies in busywork instead of creating value, not in doing what you do best (and if you do that, good chance that you can find people who are good in waht you need that will join you).
You are spot on about busywork and creating value.
I agree that founding teams should try to get complementary skill-sets in, but this can't be used as an excuse.
Or differently put… while I agree that everyone should do what they are best in, "focus" should come a bit later. Especially in the early phases founders are cross-disciplinary. I see a few people using the "focus on what you are best" as an excuse for just "doing what you like most" and ignore/hire/blame the rest.
Re: The Founder's Lie About Comfort Zones
#7Great article but I think it's a fine line. I am so much more productive when I am doing something I enjoy.
Let's say I am 5 times faster working on what I love to do, but it's only 50% as effective for my business as what I should do. Well it's still better than being 5 times slower to do something that's only twice as important.
The hard part is working out those numbers and knowing what wins, but being aware of the concept is a great start.
Re: The Founder's Lie About Comfort Zones
#8Guys - OP here. I know the article sounds like blunt rant but it's a topic very dear to me as i regularly mentor startups. Many of them hide in the mentioned patterns. If you know good articles / links on how to prioritise your work and assess missing skills in your founding team please be so kind and share them here. I will add them to the article afterwards. Thanks!
If your theory is correct, and I think it is, you can easily assess someones skillset by talking to someone, and finding out what they (are) like (if you need a book for that I can recommend "how to talk to anyone").
If you know which skills are needed for the founding team, the missing skills are simply the difference between the two.
I think finding out which skills are needed might not be very trivial. They need to be close to the core directive of the startup, all the other required skills can be filled by employees. (as in, if your startup is highly technical the founders could be 2 engineers, as long as the first two employees are a CEO and a marketer)
I love the article btw, nice and direct. Hopefully someone in the comments disagrees completely :)
Re: The Founder's Lie About Comfort Zones
#9Great article but I think it's a fine line. I am so much more productive when I am doing something I enjoy. Let's say I am 5 times faster working on what I love to do, but it's only 50% as effective for my business as what I should do. Well it's still better than being 5 times slower to do something that's only twice as important. The hard part is working out those numbers and knowing what wins, but being aware of th…
Great point! Totally agree.
Re: The Founder's Lie About Comfort Zones
#10You don't need to be a founder to lie to yourself about this. I manage a not-for-profit and I've found it very easy to hide amongst the work I'm naturally gifted for (figures, bookwork, projections) instead of dealing with the stuff that really needs doing AND that I need to be the one to do (refining processes, setting the tone & direction for the team and working out how exactly to accomplish the objectives set by our board).
You're right about the way it affects our choices when we pick our daily work. I think the real work, whether it's a startup or not, is to clarify what's important. You startup folks just get the fun of having to really think deeply about that, because there's nobody above you to tell you what the most important thing is right now.