Quick intro
What’s the problem?
Life is full of choices. We have to make fast and slow decisions every day. And there are ones that are easier and ones that feel more difficult to take. Especially in the context of entrepreneurship there are often situations in which you are confronted with different options. And some of those confrontations might also directly impact your life beyond work. Therefore, taking business advice can be a strong instrument to support you in making those impactful decisions. The challenge in taking advice lies in deciding what advice to take or confidently ignore. Even those who genuinely support you may offer advice that isn't suitable for your situation. So, how to gather advice as an entrepreneur to make the right business decisions?
Own background
What’s my context/experience?
When I started building my own projects during university I was driven by curiosity - about what I’m capable of building and how it would resonate with people (or users). The power of coding opened a lot of doors to express my creativity and bring ideas to life (or better: into web applications). At the beginning I didn’t think a lot about success or how to make my projects profitable. It was just fun and exploration. But soon, especially when my graduation was approaching, I formed the desire of making my own income and living a self-employed life. So I started to read books about business. Those books inspired me and backed my desire and belief that one day I’ll make it as an entrepreneur. Besides reading books, I also started to ask friends for feedback and advice. At that time I started with LIVRIA, back then a social media platform for musicians. I remember various situations in which I asked friends or peers from my university for their feedback on what they think about it. Answers spanned from ‘yeah, looks cool’ to ‘you should start doing…’ or ‘I wouldn’t approach it like that…’ or ‘customers won’t pay for this’. And each time I took the feedback or advice seriously. Especially when starting with a project, that can feel like an emotional roller coaster, constantly switching from excitement to strong doubts. I tried to keep up with each advice and somehow incorporate it into my process in building up the social media platform.
Besides specific feedback about my projects, there were also moments in which I asked for advice when I faced a critical decision that would massively impact my life trajectory. One example was after university when I was thinking about my first steps for my career. My plan was to apply to part-time jobs at marketing agencies. Despite graduating in business and coding, I thought learning marketing would be a crucial step in my entrepreneurial journey to promote my products. Books I read during that time were suggesting to deepen the knowledge first (in my case coding and business) before going more generalist. When asking some old friends about this step, I could see the skepticism in their faces. Meanwhile, my university peers confidently embarked on different paths, entering the workforce as full-time developers or consultants. Still, I stuck to my plan even though nobody was really advising it. I applied to various agencies, but finally got rejected from all of them. A few weeks later, I took a part-time job as a Web Developer at a fast-growing small company and learned a lot about working culture, customer support, and the leadership of the inspiring founder. And more importantly, it felt like I chose my path based on my intuition and values, even though the path didn't work out as expected.
My approach
How do I tackle it?
I think it’s difficult to define a clear solution path on how to take advice. But I noticed a few patterns in the past which I now use for future decisions.
Consideration 1:
There are decisions that are more and less impactful. Don’t waste time on asking for advice for the decisions that have no big impact on your life or business.
Consideration 2:
If you’re facing a tough decision that might change your life or business, ask the ones that really care and root for you, but keep their relationship with you in mind (for example, parents might tend to advocate for the safe path). Get the advice, and always come back to your values and visions to finally decide based on them.
Consideration 3:
Nobody knows the full context.
Consideration 4:
Always include advice from people that are already living the life or running the business you want.
Consideration 5:
Learn to feel and trust your intuition.
Consideration 6:
Often getting the right questions is more valuable than getting advice.
Consideration 7:
For product topics, do not take advice too seriously that is coming from people who are not in your target group. Including high-profile people.
Also, there are amazing techniques on how to ask yourself for advice. A good friend of mine who is a psychologist suggested one of them to me. It already helped me a lot in critical decisions:
Advice from your Inner Circle
Close your eyes. Imagine a room. Five chairs. Five versions of you.
- You at 6 years old
- You at 18
- You at 30
- You at 50
- You at 80
Ask your question to each You. Listen to the answers and their perspectives. Open your eyes again and write down your insights from the conversations.
Need specific business advice? Fill the imaginary room with experts you trust.
Inspiration I used for this article
Books, Podcasts, Articles, Quotes
- Jeff Bezos on the Lex Fridman Podcast about the importance on knowing if decisions are one-way doors or two-way doors and how to handle both.
Community Space
Your comments, ideas, feedback
- Have you ever received conflicting advice? How did you decide which advice to follow?
- What's the best advice you've ever received (or given) as an entrepreneur?
- Where do you go to find mentors or advisors for your business?
- If you could assemble a dream team of advisors, who would be on it?
- ...
Join the discussion below. Or write me an email to fabiano@40hourentrepreneur.com