10 Stupid Reasons Why Your Startup Is Failing

medium.com

7 points·mcnabj··5 comments

You’re afraid to lose friends by bugging them about your startup. Those people aren’t your friends make new ones who want to see you succeed.

This is bordering on a cult mentality. And not just in the weaselly framing of what it means to "see you succeed."

Asking friends is fine, favors are things people do for eachother. But imposing on them because you prioritize your business over their friendship is another. If you're straining a social relationship just to improve your business, you're most likely the bad friend.

I didn't like #9 either. It advocates putting yourself out there by pursuing the random possibility of an opportunity instead of opportunities that exist.

I did like the other 8 though.

I agree you should have a plan. I think it's important not to avoid doing things outside of your comfort zone because you may miss a lot of opportunities that you couldn't have planned for.

Let me rephrase. Indirectly, possibly communicating with people you think can help you - like commenting on AVC's blog - and hoping they contact you is not going to be anywhere near as helpful as contacting them directly. It's not serendipity when you put out bait and hope it catches something.

I'm definitely not advocating forcing your friends to support you. I've just found you can tell who your real friends are when they support you without you having to ask twice. They're usually your biggest fans whether or not they try your product.

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