Do the Best Entrepreneurs Give the Worst Advice?
Do the Best Entrepreneurs Give the Worst Advice?
Entrepreneur Office Hours - Issue #249
One random side effect of “teaching entrepreneurship” for a living is that I get at least a handful of snide comments every week about how stupid it is to listen to someone who teaches entrepreneurship. (Remember, I post a lot on social media… and people on there can be mean.) According to these critics, if a person was a good entrepreneur, wouldn’t he be rich? In which case, why would he be teaching entrepreneurship? In other words, it’s a reference to the old saying: “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.”
To be fair, I actually agree with those comments. Or rather, I agree with the sentiment that someone teaching entrepreneurship isn’t likely to be a great entrepreneur. Heck, I don’t think I’m a great entrepreneur. Sure, I’ve had some entrepreneurial success, but when I look at what other entrepreneurs have accomplished, I’m fully aware I’m no Jeff Bezos… or whoever the entrepreneur is who’s 10 rungs down the ladder from Bezos.
More importantly, I’d argue it’s a good thing. In fact, I suspect someone like Jeff Bezos would be a terrible person to teach entrepreneurship, and it’s because the skills of “doing” and “teaching” are two completely different skills. Usually, the most successful people in a given field are often terrible at teaching others because they focus all their energies on “doing” and never spend any time learning how to “teach.”
For proof of this distinction, consider a sport like golf. The greatest golfers in the world all have swing coaches. Why do they have swing coaches? Because “doing” and “teaching” are different skills.
I’m bringing this distinction up with all of you because you should be thinking about it when you get feedback and advice on your startups. A lot of entrepreneurs gravitate toward the most successful entrepreneurs they can find… the people who’ve made millions, or even billions, of dollars.
But the truth is the person who built and ran a billion dollar company probably hasn’t been sitting in your position at the early stages of a startup for 15+ years. Plus, that person has probably spent those 15 years obsessing over how to build his own company and hardly given a thought to teaching others how to build one.
Is that really the person you want giving you advice?
Speaking for myself, the best entrepreneurial advice I’ve gotten in my career almost never came from the most successful entrepreneurs I met. In fact, the more successful the entrepreneur (i.e. the further along the person was in his/her career), the farther removed the person seemed from my struggles, and the less helpful the person’s advice seemed to be.
But I’m also only a datapoint of one, which isn’t statistically significant, so I’m curious to hear from all of you. In your entrepreneurial careers, what kinds of people have given the most useful advice?
-Aaron
This week’s new articles…
Why Investors Expect Financial Projections (Even Though They Know They’re Made Up)
Most startup financial projections are little more than fiction, but investors have good reason for still wanting to see them.
How the Strange Existence of Tomato Knives Reveals an Important Lesson About Startups
That random tomato knife in your kitchen drawer might be able to help you with more than just slicing tomatoes.
Office Hours Q&A
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QUESTION:
Dear Aaron,
I’ve been reading your excellent newsletter for a few years now, and I want to start by saying how much I appreciate everything you share.
This is my first time having a good reason to ask a question. I’m running a startup that’s about 18 months old and is experiencing some success. We’re a small but dedicated team that’s able to execute at a high level.
However, I've begun to notice some of my key team members feeling burned out as we push through our current development phase. Do you have any advice on how to keep a small team motivated and energized during these intense periods of growth?
Thank you for your advice,
Arshan
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Thanks for being a long-time reader and for your kind words about the newsletter. I'm glad it’s been a useful resource for you, and I’m always humbled by hearing how it’s helped other founders.
As for your question about managing team burnout, let’s start by noting that it’s fantastic you’re recognizing the signs early. Keeping a small team motivated during an intense growth phases is definitely hard, but it becomes a lot harder if they’ve passed the point of true flameout.
There are basically two big things I’d suggest you focus on:
First, as with most things in life, communication is key. If people seem like they’re getting burnt out, don’t ignore it or make it seem like a dirty word. Bring it to the surface. Heck, I bet you’re feeling worn down, too. Talk about it. Show that you understand. Encourage people to share how they’re feeling.
In other words, the fact you’re sensing burnout but aren’t telling me anyone is openly discussing it is more of a red flag than the burnout itself.
Startups are hard. Everyone gets exhausted. None of that is unusual or a particularly big problem. The problem is when people don’t talk about it because it makes others think they’re somehow weak or flawed if they express any sort of tiredness. Before you know it, you’ve got an epidemic of hidden burnout bubbling beneath the surface waiting to explode and topple your entire company. So step one is to get it into the open.
My second suggestion is to encourage flexible work and vacations. I know, as CEO of a company, encouraging people not to work seems counterintuitive. But, if you have genuinely good employees, it means they’re going to want to work hard and you’re going to need to actively push them to take time off and/or slow down. It really is a good thing because, in the end, losing a few days of work from a well-rested and energetic employee is much better than losing a great employee to burnout.
Got startup questions of your own? Reply to this email with whatever you want to know, and I’ll do my best to answer!
