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Language: en
I'm now personally taking a step into
building a startup first time hoping to
change the world of course there are
thousands maybe more maybe millions of
other first-time entrepreneurs like me
what advice you've gone to this process
he's talked about the suffering the
emotional turmoil it all my entail what
advice do you have for those people
taking that step I I'd say it's a rough
ride and you have to be psychologically
prepared for things going wrong with
frequency you have to be prepared to be
put in situations where you're being
asked to solve problems you didn't even
know those problems existed you know for
example renting space it's it's not
really a problem unless you've never
done it you have no idea where the lease
looks like right you don't even know the
relevant rent and you know in a market
so everything is new everything has to
be learned what what you realize is that
it's good to have other people with you
who've had some experience in areas
where you don't know what you're doing
unfortunately an entrepreneur starting
doesn't know much of anything so
everything is is something new yeah and
I think it's important not to be alone
because it's sort of overwhelming and
you need somebody to talk to other than
a spouse or a loved one because even
they get bored with your problems and
and so you know getting a group you know
if you look at Alibaba you know Chacma
was telling me they went you know they
basically were like a financial death's
door at least twice and you know the
fact that there it wasn't just Jack I
mean people think it is because of you
know he became the you know the sort of
public face and the driver but but a
group of people
who can give advice share situations to
talk about that's really important and
that's not just referring to the small
details like renting space no it's also
the psychological yes Gordon yeah and
you know because most entrepreneurs at
some point question what they're doing
because it's not going so well or
they're screwing it up and they don't
know how to unscrew it up because we're
all learning and it's hard to be
learning you know when they're like
twenty five variables going on if you
you know if you're missing four big ones
you can really make a mess and so the
ability to to in effect have either an
outsider who's really smart that you can
rely on for certain type of things or
other people who are working with you on
a daily basis it's most people who
haven't had experience believe in the
myth of the one person one great person
you know makes outcomes creates outcomes
that are positive most of us it's not
like that
if you look back over a lot of the big
successful tech companies it's not
typically one person it you know it's
and you will know these stories better
than I do because it's your world not
mine but even I know that almost every
one of them had two people I mean if you
look at Google you know that's what they
had and then that was the same at
Microsoft at the beginning and you know
who's the same at Apple it you know
people have different skills and and
they need to play off of other people so
so um you know the the advice that I
would give you is make sure you
understand that so you don't head off in
some direction as a lone wolf and find
that either you can't invent all the
solutions or you make bad decisions on
certain types of things this is a team
sport entrepreneur
means you're alone in effect and that's
the myth but it's mostly a myth yeah I
think and you talk about this in your
book and I could talk to you about it
forever the the harshly self-critical
aspect to your personality and to mine
as well in the face of failure it's a
powerful tool but it's also a burden
that's that's very interesting very
interesting to walk that line but let me
ask on the in terms of people around you
in terms of friends in the bigger
picture of your own life what do you put
the value of love family friendship in
the big picture journey of your life
well ultimately all journeys are alone
it's great to have support and you know
when you you you go forward and say your
job is to make something work and that's
your number one priority and and you're
gonna work at it to make it work you
know it's like superhuman effort people
don't come become successful as
part-time workers doesn't work that way
and if you're prepared to make that 100
to 120 percent effort you're gonna
you're gonna need support and and you're
gonna have to people involve with your
life who understand that that's really
part of your life
sometimes you you're involved with
somebody and you know they don't really
understand that and that's a source of
you know sort of conflict and difficulty
but if you if you're involved with the
right people you know whether it's a
dating relationship or you know sort of
you know spousal relationship you know
you you have to involve them in your
life but not burden them
with with every you know sort of minor
triumph or mistake they they actually
get bored with it after a while and and
so you have to set up different types of
ecosystems
you have your home life you have your
love life you have children and and
that's like the enduring part of what
you do and then on the other side you've
got the you know sort of unpredictable
nature of of this type of work what
would I say to people at my firm who
were younger
usually well everybody's younger but but
you know people who have an age where
you know they they're just having their
first child or maybe they have two
children that it's important to make
sure they go away with their spouse at
least once every two months it's just
some lovely place where there are no
children no issues sometimes once a
month if they're you know sort of
energetic and clever I and that escape
the craziness of it all yeah and and
reaffirm your values as a couple and you
have to have fun if you don't have fun
with the person you're with and all
you're doing is dealing with issues then
then that gets pretty old and so you
have to protect the fun element of your
life together and the way to do that
isn't by hanging around the house and
and dealing with you know sort of more
problems you have to get away and and
reinforce and reinvigorate your
relationship and whenever I tell one of
our younger people about that they sort
of look at me in there it's like the
scales are falling off of their eyes and
they're saying geez you know I hadn't
thought about that you know I'm so
enmeshed in all these things but that's
a great idea
and that's something is
entrepreneur you also have to do you
just can't let relationships slip
because you're half overwhelmed
you