Whose Advice Should A Startup Founder Listen To?

As a startup founder, you’ll need to fight fires every day. There are so many problems you need to solve, and because the buck stops with you, just when you’ve put one fire out, another one will start up somewhere else. You’re likely to find yourself very confused and unsure what to do next, because you don’t know what the right path is. Which is the best option? You are petrified that your company will go down the tubes if you select the wrong one , which is why you will actively seek out advice.

You will find lots of people who are happy to give you advice – mentors, coaches, investors, friends, and family. Many people will be happy to share gyaan, but how do you make out who is providing you with advice which is worth listening to?

This can be a huge problem when the advice from two different people, both of whom you respect, is diametrically opposite. Who should you listen to? Sometimes too much analysis can cause paralysis, and this makes a bad problem even worse. Some founders are advice junkies – they love attending conferences, reading books and devouring blogs, so they can figure out what the wisest theoretical option is.

Many attend every startup conference in order to engage with successful founders, so they can be inspired by their personal stories . Others will read biographies about entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, and try to emulate what worked for them. Unfortunately , this is a rocky path to success which is littered with landmines. You are very unlikely to be able to duplicate what worked for a particular person at a particular time , and this technique will provide little useful guidance as to what you need to do in real life.

The reality is that a good advisor will never tell you what to do. He will help you find the answers within yourself , because he understands that the path which you’re walking is one which is unique to you, and you need to find your own answers, because these are the only ones which are likely to work well for you.

A good advisor will never pretend that he has all the answers. He will always provide advice with lot of ifs and buts and provisos, because he understands that it’s not the advice which matters – it’s how you interpret and implement it which makes a world of a difference.

When founders ask me for help, I use the GROW acronym, to help them find what will work for them.

G- Goal = what do they hope to achieve from a conversation with me
R- Reality = what the facts are
O – Options = where we use a mindmap and brainstorm, and I can share what’s worked for me and other people
W- What’s next = the action steps which the founder will take next.

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