“Martha eats books for breakfast”, Min’an usually says to others.
I’ve read so many books about entrepreneurship and writing. I’ve read countless books about meditations. I probably will read books about swimming too. Instead of doing the action, I read a book about it.
This post is about an author of books I recently read. His name is Dan Norris, and Australian Derek Sivers as far as I’m concerned. I like what he wrote in his first book The Seven Day Startup about the kind of startup that’s set up first-time founders to be successful. He said it’s best if newbie founders can launch the business idea quickly because you only learn things after you launch.
I particularly like one insight derived from the famous Steve Jobs’ insight about the customer not knowing what they want. Norris said:
“People don’t know what they don’t want until they are forced to open their wallets.”
He then listed so many praises he received, which mean nothing unless the people become paying clients. I found this to be so true as well. It’s easy and less scary to ask for feedback from friends rather than rejection from customers. It really hurts. I don’t want to get hurt again, but it’s better than not knowing the truth.
I devoured the book, and I then looked through the list of books he has. He has written six books. One alluringly called This Is the Answer—is designed to trap people like me, who are looking for an answer, a playbook as to how I’m supposed to create a startup, which by definition inherently involve high uncertainty.
So I proceeded, as usual, to read the book.
I wondered if “this is the answer”, then what is the question I was asking myself? I think it’s something like “How can I succeed this time?” And if I’m honest, it’s much closer to “Why do I suck so badly?”
(In case you’re wondering, I’m ok, I’m just telling you the running thoughts inside my head when I think of myself as an entrepreneur, which I suspect I’m not alone in thinking those thoughts.)
Somehow Norris gave me the answer to most questions I had: that there is no answer. We don’t know why products fail. We only know when they succeed. That’s what high uncertainty means.
I made a mental note that I wanted to read his other books, but probably after doing some actions, I can report on this blog than just reading his books.
He said: “If you have a conversation with a friend about your business idea this month, and next month you are having the same conversation, you are a wantrepreneur.”
I don’t want to stay at wanting. I want to act on it.