Fear can be a good motivator or it can bring you down. Everyone at some point has to face their “quicksand” especially in a startup. Only two ways I know to get through it, a great team or having someone in your immediate network you can talk to. While mistakes will happen in a startup the “quicksand” doesn’t have to.

So, what is you startup fear?

One successful client.

On the surface that sounds simple, but it’s not. Success does not come from giving it out or getting hundreds of people signing up, it comes when your client is successful because of the product you have provided them. Did their business grow by 400%? Are they making 10x the money? Did they save hundreds of hours? Its always promised to clients but rarely delivered on. At the end of the day if you are not making them successful then someone else will.

Why is this so hard, because as a startup your focused on building a business that you started on a napkin. Its about you building, adding clients, getting capitol and making money. I’ve seen and in the past I have created a few plans went like this: give it away to get people, get them signed up, from that you can begin to charge for the product. All that is great and by all accounts that is what you wanted to do, except for many startups that is not a long term business model.

True success is when your clients are successful because of you. Get that done and your well on your way to a successful startup.

BTW: I’d like to thank Mark Brooks for reminding me of this.

• The Economy
• The Oil Spill
• Nothing on cable
• Anxiety about the Health Care Bill, 1070 SB or the next big issue.
• Make up your own

I have seen normal people do some pretty crazy things lately? Have you?

1. Change the way the whole industry does business
2. Create a whole new industry

If your not focused one of those, your just adding to the noise.

Thoughts?

So what was I wrong about, so many things I guess. Founders often talk about making mistakes and moving on, the problem I have found is knowing what the REAL problem is.

Key mistakes I have made that you need to avoid if your in a startup or thinking about it:

• Leadership: If something is wrong, STOP EVERYTHING! Time and money will be lost if you don’t.
• Mistakes: they happen. Just make sure your partners/clients understand that.
• Hats: We have switched, moved, shifted, altered, turned, flipped, etc. job responsibilities so much I have no idea what I am doing. This will cause serious problems with your partners.
• Money: Over time you will quickly learn where and what has value, sometimes it is not always what you thought. This can be a problem for your clients/partners.
• Savings: Thought I was prepared for the long haul but we have made seriously large $$$ mistakes. Have 4 to 5 times what you think is needed. (see bullet #1)
• Social Silence: Get the word out, get it out often and don’t be shy!
• Comfort Zone: I’m not saying move your company, I am saying find partners/clients, attention, resources outside your startup city to get feedback from environments you don’t live in.
• Communications: From day one, give someone the project management hat. Project management is not a part-time, come and go job. It is critical to the business, without it you will have a list like this one .
• Track everything: Track your time, it helps you understand where and how your time is spent. In a startup, time speeds up and slows down without you knowing, track it so you can learn from it.

Having said all that, its been an amazing education, I hope that I can continue to contribute not only to the company but to the community in which we started it. Because of bullet point #5 I may have to step out for a while to catch up on things, it sucks but that’s how things roll sometimes.

Thanks for playing,

Would anyone else be interested in this idea?

This city needs more kid friendly networking events, that way I could combine my two favorite things, my kids and meeting new people!

We are expecting our third soon and I have to admit, I am extremely nervous.  Not sure why but it feels like a big change is coming and no matter what I do, I am so unprepared for it.   Communication with 2 is easy, you can do zone defense, you can watch one while the other stands by AND you can always know what 2 people are up to at all times.  Adding a 3rd, wow, I am going to have to re-write my rules, learn better management style and really watch/listen to all.

Any words of advice from a parent of 3 or more would be great?

• The perfect startup?
• The perfect politician?
• The perfect movie? (Shawshank Redemption)
• The perfect album?
• The perfect website?
• The perfect ending to a great series?
• The perfect city?

Just curious,