1/ Excited to share that Shoelace is now a profitable company 🎉
Which means we make more money than we lose and have infinite runway. What a strange feeling!
It's been a wild ride of mostly failures, but a few wins that make them all worth it. Here are some lessons learned 👇
Which means we make more money than we lose and have infinite runway. What a strange feeling!
It's been a wild ride of mostly failures, but a few wins that make them all worth it. Here are some lessons learned 👇
2/ Learn to think for yourself. Blog posts, tweetstorms (like this one), advice from smart people are just inputs.
You need to get comfortable making your own decisions.
You need to get comfortable making your own decisions.
3/ There's no honor in persevering if you're going in the wrong direction.
4/ Measuring progress based on head count growth is a terrible habit.
5/ Remember that a team grows linearly but managing a larger group gets exponentially more complex.
6/ Your self-worth is not tied to how well the company is doing.
7/ Don't try to make everyone happy, it never works.
8/ Find the balance between self doubt and hubris. Think of them as two wings you need to fly.
Tipping too far in either direction is very harmful.
Tipping too far in either direction is very harmful.
9/ If you have momentum your only job is to keep it. If you lose momentum your only job is to get it back
10/ Decisions made on impulse almost always backfire. Learn to "sleep on it".
11/ Don't worry so much about what people think of you. The Courage to be Disliked is a great book on this topic.
12/ Short term tradeoffs at the expense of the long term is like taking out a loan.
Remember to pay them off at some point or the compound interest will crush you.
Remember to pay them off at some point or the compound interest will crush you.
13/ Understand what your weaknesses are and never let the success of a project hinge on your overcoming it.
If there's one place to delegate it's here.
If there's one place to delegate it's here.
14/ Eventually you need to unlearn what you think it means to be productive.
Your "work" will become about making the right decisions, not producing output.
Your "work" will become about making the right decisions, not producing output.
15/ When the company is in a rut avoid endless meetings about "what to do".
That's your comfort zone dragging you deeper into the hole.
That's your comfort zone dragging you deeper into the hole.
16/ Conflict is either a healthy tension that helps you get to the right answers, or it's a battle of egos.
Be mindful and avoid the latter, it's never productive.
Be mindful and avoid the latter, it's never productive.
17/ We all dread failure. But you need to let some projects fail in order for others to succeed.
Stubbornly protecting a project from failure can risk bringing the whole ship down.
Stubbornly protecting a project from failure can risk bringing the whole ship down.
18/ If something won't stop nagging you, deal with it. It's probably important.
19/ Everything will always take way longer than you think. Not recognizing this is the cause of many troubles.
20/ It's normal to be uncertain about strategy.
But changing course too many times will have your crew burnt out and seasick. Tread carefully.
But changing course too many times will have your crew burnt out and seasick. Tread carefully.
21/ If momentum is lost, get it back by looking for small wins not big swings.
Small wins breed more wins while big swings usually fail and destroy morale.
Small wins breed more wins while big swings usually fail and destroy morale.
22/ Finally, don't forget your life outside of work.
Immersing yourself in work is often an escape from other responsibilities that are usually a lot more important.
Immersing yourself in work is often an escape from other responsibilities that are usually a lot more important.
