<\/p>\n
This is an article from Entrepreneur Middle East, on advice and mistakes that top entrepreneurs have learned from. We thought it was from interesting, have a look.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In 2004, many of us had the opportunity to become shareholders in Google for the very first time.\u00a0Most of us passed on that offer.\u00a0Had we decided to invest, by cashing out today, we would\u00a0make more than $5 for every dollar we put in. To me, that\u2019s a regret.<\/p>\n
And it’s not my only one: We\u2019ve all made decisions (or failed to make decisions) we wish we could take back.\u00a0Even the most successful entrepreneurs are no different. I asked nine founders about their biggest regrets in business. And I\u00a0learned a lot from what they shared. I\u00a0hope you do, too:<\/p>\n
Regret: Not looking for problems.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cMost of my early failures were a result of building things people didn’t want. What I would have done differently is to find the right problem to solve for customers before writing a single line of code. It would have saved me a countless amount of time and resources.\u201d —\u00a0Hiten Shah<\/a><\/p>\n Regret: Not investing in culture.<\/em><\/p>\n “I wish I had focused more time, thought and money into the company culture from day one. I have since discovered this to be the most important factor in the success of scaling any business. Core values, core purpose and integrating these into everything will give the largest returns you will ever see as a founder.\u201d —\u00a0David Hauser<\/a><\/p>\n Regret: Not connecting with a mentor.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI would have gotten a mentor who’s done the things I wanted to accomplish in the future. Why not learn from someone who’s already done the things you want to do? People will read this and still not do anything. Instead, send one email to the person you respect in business the most, asking for a chat. You’ll be surprised how much it energizes you and helps you succeed.\u201d —\u00a0Noah Kagan<\/a><\/p>\n Related:\u00a010 Instinctive Decisions You Will Regret Forever<\/a><\/p>\n Regret: Not selling sooner.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cOne of my bigger regrets in my first startup is hanging on to it too long. I ran that company for about 10 years. I had acquisition offers along the way, but the valuations never matched my growth projections. I probably held off on selling that company for three to four more years than I should have. I knew that I was no longer excited about the industry, and had aspirations to do something different — and hopefully bigger. Eventually, I did sell the company, which freed me up to go back to MIT for graduate school — and ultimately start HubSpot. If you’re heart’s not in it, be willing to make the sacrifice to let something go so you can free yourself up for whatever new things are ahead.\u201d —\u00a0Dharmesh Shah<\/a><\/p>\n Regret: Not asking for feedback.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I got my first customers at Mixergy, I was embarrassed to ask them why they bought and what I could do to improve Mixergy for them. I thought they were going to tell me that there were too many things to improve because my site sucked. When I finally started calling them, I heard about a lot of things that needed improving, but my customers really liked me and my work, and many of them offered to help improve what wasn’t working the way they wanted.\u201d —\u00a0Andrew Warner<\/a><\/p>\n Regret: Not trying new things in school.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI would have definitely experimented with more stuff in high school and college. Programming, science, selling:\u00a0I was a bit too shy and nervous about my social image to try different things, and I ended up having some catching up to do.\u201d —\u00a0Wade Foster<\/a><\/p>\n Regret: Not living in the moment.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI was obsessed about always moving from point A to B to C, which meant I was never really present in any given moment. This also meant that the highs on the rollercoaster ride were fleeting, and the lows, always brutally around-the-corner. I’ve since learned to enjoy the journey itself (more than the destination) and appreciate small victories and special moments much more.\u201d —\u00a0Adii Pienaar<\/a><\/p>\n Regret: Not being focused.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIn the early days of building FreshBooks, I struggled to find focus. As an entrepreneur, you see opportunity everywhere. It\u2019s in your DNA — your business becomes a hammer, and everything looks like a nail. I could see an infinite number of paths that the company could take. I was fortunate enough to have a good advisor who taught me an invaluable lesson before I managed to killed the company. He said, \u201cMike, there\u2019s a four-letter word in business: FOCUS. If you don\u2019t focus, you\u2019ll be drowning.\u201d He encouraged me to pick one thing and go as deep as possible\u2026 and [to do that] just when I thought it was deep enough, to push harder, because you can always go a hell of a lot further than you initially think.\u201d —\u00a0Mike McDerment<\/a><\/p>\n2. David Hauser,\u00a0Grasshopper<\/h2>\n
3. Noah Kagan, AppSumo<\/h2>\n
4. Dharmesh Shah, HubSpot<\/h2>\n
5. Andrew Warner, Mixergy<\/h2>\n
6. Wade Foster,\u00a0Zapier<\/h2>\n
7. Adii Pienaar, WooThemes and Receiptful<\/h2>\n
8. Mike McDerment, FreshBooks<\/h2>\n
9. Jason Lemkin EchoSign<\/h2>\n