The Right Mindset for Startup Founders

I've learned a lot since starting my startup. One of the most important lessons I've learned is that interpreting good news and bad news in the right mindset is vital for founders. It's a skill that's not being appreciated enough by people who haven't start a startup before.

This goes to the nature of startups: the early stages of any business are inherently high-risk and highly uncertain. It's like sailing. Yesterday it was sunny, today there comes a thunderstorm, and tomorrow is bright again. Speaking in startup terms: yesterday's design progress is seriously stuck. Today's engineering development has a significant breakthrough. Tomorrow a cooperation plan falls apart. The day after tomorrow, a great designer wants to join the team to help.

So what is the right mindset for a startup founder? I think it is: don't be too happy when you get good news. Stay cautious; Don't get too depressed when you get bad news. Stay positive. I had experienced countless times when the problem I thought impossible to solve yesterday only to find that it was not as difficult as I had imagined after researching for a while. This made me realize that no problem is impossible to solve in theory; the key is to have the patience to solve it.

Therefore, in a highly uncertain environment, the ability to solve difficult problems is essential, but the real key is to have steady progress every day for a very long time. The most important thing you can do before starting a startup is to take a seasick pill and make sure the ship will keep going on sunny days and stormy days. As long as you can get closer to the goal every day, you can reach the goal sooner or later.

Why post this article now? Because today I solved a problem that I thought was super difficult. This experience has happened more than ten times since I started my startup, and it feels good.

開始創業以後我有了不少新的體悟，而其中最深的一個體悟是：對創業者來說，用正確的心態去理解好消息和壞消息，是一個極為重要的能力，沒創過業的人通常比較難真正體會到的這項能力的重要性。

這牽涉到創業公司的一個本質：任何事業在初期，都必然會處在一個高風險、高不確定性的狀態。這就好比航海，昨天還風和日麗，今天馬上就遇到海嘯雷雨，明天又再度晴空萬里。換到創業的情況就是，昨天在介面設計上嚴重卡關，今天在工程開發上就有了重大的突破，明天某個合作計畫談崩，後天突然又有大神想要加入團隊幫忙設計。

所以什麼是一個健康的創業心態呢？我認為是：遇到好消息不要太開心，依然保持小心謹慎；遇到壞消息也不用太沮喪，要能保持樂觀。之前已經遭遇過無數次這樣的體驗：昨天覺得不可能解決的問題，沈澱過一段時間後卻發現沒有想像中的困難。這讓我體會到，其實沒有什麼問題是理論上不可能被解決的，重點只是有沒有耐心去解決它。

也因此，在一個高度不確定性的環境中，要解決困難的問題，能力固然重要，走得長久才是真正關鍵。在搭上創業這艘船前，最重要的是吞一顆暈船藥，確保這艘船不管在風和日麗還是雷雨交加的日子都能穩定向前航行。只要每天都能離終點靠近一點，那遲早有一天可以到達終點的。

為什麼在這個時候發這篇文呢？因為今天搞定了一個之前覺得超困難的問題。這樣的體驗從創業以來已經發生了超過十次，感覺真舒服。