I listened to an investor share his life story recently. He’s made some timely investments that have done extremely well. I always enjoy hearing the stories of successful people because most contain a golden nugget (something others can learn from). Most of what you read about such people talks about their successes, but their journeys usually include massive failures. This story was no different. This investor was kicked out of college before he got his act together. My biggest takeaway was the amount of preparation that went into his success. He spent a decade refining his investment style before he realized a sizeable return. Many of his investments went to zero, but he learned from each one.

Some believe the path to success can be short. I disagree. I’ve yet to meet anyone successful who got there overnight. Years, if not decades, of hard work position people for eventual successful.

If you want to do something great, you must be committed and put in the work. There are no shortcuts in life. For those of you who aspire to be successful, settle in—it’s going to be a long ride!

I had a great conversation with another investor who’s had an interesting journey. He worked in corporate America learning hard skills out of undergrad. Then he joined a start-up as an early employee. His skills helped the start-up minimize painful learnings and release a superior product in less time. Equity was part of his compensation package. Eventually, he made his way to venture capital and learned how to invest in early-stage companies. The start-up he’d worked at years before went public, and his early equity turned into a significant financial windfall. He began doing personal angel investments, and now he’s planning to raise a fund to help founders in his area of expertise.  

He understands start-up life and entrepreneurship from various perspectives. Now he’s taking what he’s learned and the wealth he has amassed from his journey and using them to help more founders become successful.

People like this have a huge impact on start-up ecosystems. The combination of capital, operator knowledge, and relationships can be game-changing for early founders. I look forward to watching this investor transition to fund manager. I’m sure he and his team will move his space forward!

I was chatting with a close friend who needed to make a big decision. I listened as he talked through all the things going through his head. He listed the pros and cons of each path he was considering. Toward the end of the conversation, I realized he was afraid to make the wrong decision and his fear had paralyzed him.

As a founder, I learned that indecision could kill my company (a few times, it almost did). I didn’t want my company to die, so I learned to make decisions more quickly. I was still afraid they could be wrong. I got over this by telling myself that incorrect decisions were inevitable, and they weren’t mistakes, they were just painful lessons that improved future decision-making.

As I got more confident in my decision-making and leadership, I learned to distinguish between what my gut was telling me and what my brain was telling me. I realized that my gut usually gave me a quick answer on what I should do, and my brain rationalized why I should do something but it took more time. I eventually figured out that my gut was usually right and leveraged it more in my decision-making. I would listen to my gut to decide what I was going to do (and write it down). If I needed to have others execute the decision, I leveraged my brain to articulate the reasons for my decision. Otherwise, I’d just execute it myself and not worry about the why.

Making decisions is one of the biggest responsibilities of founders. You can’t avoid them or put them off. They must be made. Luckily, everyone can have their own decision-making style, and no one expects perfection. Whatever your approach, always strive to improve it, because the better you get at making decisions the more likely your company is to succeed.

I recently went shopping and encountered a surprising sales style. The salesperson was knowledgeable, but he didn’t seem to care if I bought the product I was interested in. He wasn’t pushy or even trying to close the deal. He merely suggested I test out the product. I did, and I was impressed. A few days later, I bought it. Afterward, I asked the salesperson why he was indifferent to my purchasing decision. He said the product is so great that it sells itself and that if I didn’t buy it, someone else would—he sees a constant flow of people who are ready to buy.

This company has done a great job of understanding the pains of their customer and creating a product that solves them magnificently. Potential customers test the product, immediately see the value it creates, and are ready to pay for that value. The salesperson is there to answer questions, but the product itself is doing all the selling.

Lots of early founders want to focus on sales and marketing after they launch their product. They believe that’s the key to growth. Both functions are important to any business. But in the early days, founders should be laser focused on their product as the key to growth. An amazingly good sales and marketing strategy is to make a product so wonderful that people easily understand the value it creates for them. Happy customers spread the word to others. When those folks try it, they’ll love it and buy it, and they’ll spread the word.

If you’re an early founder concerned about sales and market, ask yourself: Is your product good enough to market and sell itself?

I’ve been following the recent news about Nikola Corp. founder and former chairman Trevor Milton. He’s been charged with misleading investors. I have no views on his guilt or innocence, but his situation reminded me of conversations I’ve had with founders.

Many early founders are optimistic about their companies. To survive, they have to be. The chips are stacked against them. If founders focus on the million things that could go wrong, it’s hard to motivate teams to run through walls. So, many of them see the glass as half full and focus on what could go right. I like this approach. It’s what teams need to do the impossible.

But . . . though optimism is great, there’s a line that founders shouldn’t cross. They should be clear about what has happened versus what they’re planning for. Saying you’ve hired a rock star CTO is different than saying a CTO will come on board shortly when you conclude final negotiations. One’s a done deal. The other’s an expectation. Founders can get themselves in hot water if they position something as having already been concluded when it hasn’t. Even if it’s highly likely it will happen soon. Maybe it won’t. Maybe Murphy’s Law will kick in. Or maybe the founder’s view of what’s “highly likely” is skewed by his rose-colored glasses.

Founders should be optimistic but also clear with all stakeholders. Optimism without transparency will erode trust over time. If a team doesn’t trust its leader, it’s doomed.

Today marks the end of my seventy-first week of working from home (mostly). Here are my takeaways from week seventy-one:

• Rhythm – Lots of things were going on this week, but I was in a good rhythm and one top of it all. I felt organized and proactive instead of chaotic and reactive.
• Conviction – I watched some interesting interviews of successful people on YouTube. All of them mentioned gaining confidence in bold moves by having conviction. This stuck with me, and I’ve been thinking about it all week.
• Knowledge sharing – I want to be more proactive about learning things in areas I’m curious about. Digital communities are a great source of knowledge.

Week seventy-one was a busy one. Lots of good things happened. I felt like I was productive and ended the week on a high note.

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One of my biggest takeaways from my time in corporate America was that every company has issues. I was doing consulting work, which basically meant my team helped companies solve problems they couldn’t solve on their own. I was fortunate enough to count some of the biggest Fortune 500 companies as clients. I’m talking iconic brands in Super Bowl commercials. From the outside looking in, I thought these companies had it all figured out and were well-oiled machines (kudos to their marketing departments). In reality, I usually found a large and constantly evolving organization that had a serious problem in a core area —one that wasn’t materially impacting revenue yet but that could derail the company if left unaddressed.

When I talk with early founders now, I try to remind them that every company has weaknesses. It’s normal. The great founders I know are aware of the problems in their companies and working to address them. It’s a never-ending cycle. They communicate their issues to others and seek help to resolve them. (When people have a clear understanding of what you need help with, they’re more likely to help you.)

If you’re a founder and feel you must present your company as perfect, I suggest you think again. Perfection doesn’t exist in business. Being open with others about your issues could be the key to resolving them!

When I was working in corporate America, I knew I wanted to become an entrepreneur full-time. And I knew I needed flexibility and capital to make that dream a reality. I avoided long-term obligations and saved as much of my salary as possible. Then all my friends started buying houses, and I began suffering a bit from FOMO. So, I went out and bought a home too. It required me to put down a large sum of capital and locked me into a long-term financial obligation.

I didn’t know anything about raising money from investors, so I funded my company with customer revenue and my savings. My entrepreneurial journey was full of ups and downs, and often I regretted not having the capital I’d put into a home to invest in the company. I enjoyed having a place I could call my own, but I owed the bank a lot of money. And it made sure to remind me of that every month. Seeing that loan balance on my monthly statement definitely affected how I made decisions.

In the end it all worked out, and I was able to grow the company to over eight figures in revenue. Looking back, though, I realize that I didn’t act in alignment with my goal. The decision to buy a home didn’t better position me for entrepreneurship. It did the opposite. I had less capital to put toward my company and a long-term obligation that reduced my risk tolerance.

My goal was different than my friends’ goals. So, my actions should have been different too. I’m very thankful for the journey I had and wouldn’t change a thing. But I did learn from it and begin thinking about my actions and goals differently. I now look at any major action I’m contemplating and ask myself if it will get me closer to or further away from my goal. If it doesn’t move me closer, I don’t proceed.

If you’re a founder considering a material action, ask yourself: Does this align with my goals? That question can prevent you from doing things you’ll regret and give you the confidence to take high-risk actions.

Earlier this week, I shared my thoughts on consumer lending heating up. It’s a large and growing market that’s big enough for multiple winners and hasn’t kept up with changing consumer behavior. The market opportunity could move the needle for any company, even a juggernaut like Apple.

Today it was reported that Apple is partnering with Affirm to offer a buy-now-pay-later option for Apple devices purchase in Canada. This is yet another big announcement in the consumer lending space within a short time. Apple and Square are making big bets on it. (Affirm was already in the space.)

I figured consumer lending would be strategically important and change quickly, and it appears to be changing even faster than I thought. Change is generally good—I’m a fan of it. Especially when it helps solve pain points for consumers in a better way. I can’t wait to see how this space is revolutionized by these new entrants.

Last month I shared my thoughts on how I could see Apple as the go-to consumer bank in the future. Since then, it’s been reported that Apple has partnered with Goldman Sachs to offer a buy-now-pay-later option for products purchased via Apple Pay on Apple devices. Today it was reported that Square is acquiring an Australian pay-later company for $29 billion. This announcement caught me off guard and got me thinking.

Consumer lending is a large and growing market. It plays a key role in the overall economy, so it’s big enough to move the needle for a huge company like Apple. And the market is large enough for there to be multiple winners. It’s not on the cutting edge—it hasn’t kept up with other changes in consumer behavior. Considering these and other factors, the moves by Apple and Square make perfect sense. I suspect they won’t be alone—we’ll see more companies entering this space.

I think consumer lending is about to change rapidly. I’m excited to see new entrants in the space and can’t wait to see what direction this goes in.