How to Handle Startup Advice
“Spend just as much time weeding out [advice] as you do listening and applying,”
by Charlie O’Donnell
I’m convinced that for every decision you can find credible sources advising opposite courses of action. This is especially true for what I’ve experienced with startups.
Charlie O’Donnell wrote a nice post on this topic entitled, “The Problem with Startup Advice.”
As a startup founder, your role is not to run in the direction of every piece of advice that comes your way. Rather, it is to be an absorbing sponge with backbone.
Take it all in. Especially try to see through to the motivations that prompted a given adviser’s specific piece of advice. Then, have backbone and think for yourself. Since you were a sponge before, you will certainly be influenced from what you have absorbed and that is where the impact of advice will provide positive returns.
So, are you going to take my “absorbing sponge with backbone” advice, or not?
How do you absorb and process startup advice?
As an aside: In Thursday’s talk, Greg Foster mentioned something off-the-cuff as he was introducing himself. He said, “By-the-way, never take advice from someone who made money only in the dot-com days. Everybody made money then, so their money does not prove they are qualified to give advice.” I’ve seen a lot of people that fit that category.