trendpreneur

Yesterday, I watched something beautiful happen. At our regular Monday meeting for entrepreneurs on the EPIS programme, a new member talked about a decision he was about to make. Bit by bit, people around the table chimed in with comments — it turned out that he wasn’t aware of some of the major repercussions to making this decision, and suddenly he had a whole army of people helping him out, warning him of the pitfalls and giving him a few phone numbers to call. I haven’t been in that position (yet), but it was amazing to see the sheer depth of experience and knowledge flying across the room, all to help out this guy nobody really knew.

A while back, I read a post about Marc Hedlund’s advice on entrepreneurship. One of the things that stood out to me was the comment “Write someone and ask them for help every day”. When I first read it, I was quite sceptical; who’s going to help some random person they vaguely know? However, having seen time and again how people are amazingly friendly and open towards you when they know you’re just starting out on this long and tough journey, how they trip over themselves to pass on advice and help you out, and how they’ll give you honest feedback on stuff you didn’t even realise you needed feedback on… yes, I now agree with Marc. Maybe not in the “sit down and think of someone every day” mentality, but in the spirit of it: advice is great, there are loads of people happy to share their thoughts, and you can often get a new angle on something or avoid a mistake before you make it with a little outside stability.

Another post in this vein is possibly a little too American to work in Edinburgh, but the sentiment is there; take someone you admire out to lunch. Perhaps with a little tweaking this philosophy could be altered to “a nice cup of tea and a sit down with someone who will have interesting things to say”, possibly a little more appropriate for these windy climes.

Ultimately the decisions you make are down to one person: you. (Or you and your co-founders, but you catch my drift.) With all the good advice in the world, people still make mistakes, and that’s how we learn — it’s also easy to be swayed by every new idea or recommendation that comes along, constantly changing direction based on what one person said the other day. Stick to your vision while being flexible enough to incorporate change, and don’t be afraid to ask for advice — it’s a sign of strength, not weakness.