A Founder’s New Year’s resolution
As founders and entrepreneurs, the dawn of a new year represents an opportunity to set ambitious goals and chart an impactful course for our ventures. By studying the wisdom of seasoned thought leaders like Paul Graham and Garry Tan, we can craft crisp and focused New Year's resolutions to maximize our potential in the year ahead.
First and foremost, think broad and big. Imagine goals worthy of your talents and abilities. Rather than incremental progress, envision leaps that bring disruptive innovation and outsized impact. Resolve to solve knotty problems, take on entrenched competitors, and build an enduring legacy. But don't stop at lofty visions - translate ambition into action. Lay out clear, step-by-step plans to achieve your big goals. I’ve been personally tracking my goals on my notion to check in every month to see where I’m at. Want to double revenue? Map out the new products and features, marketing initiatives, and sales processes needed to get there. Think in terms of measurable objectives, achievable milestones and sprints, and remaining products.
Graham famously called startups to launch something new every week - a philosophy all founders and investors should embrace. Be diligent to ship a fresh product feature, blog post, podcast episode, or promotional campaign at least weekly. Maintain a bias toward action and continuous value creation. Of course, lasting progress requires balanced habits, not burnout. Take Garry Tan's advice and start small - perhaps 10 minutes of daily meditation or reading one relevant book per month. Choose incremental improvements sustainable over the long haul. Just like the public markets, 7% annual gains look meager to an aggressive hedge fund investor, but overall the gains have beat most active investors.
Similarly, regularly invest in your health and well-being. As Tan notes, personal vitality and professional success go hand-in-hand. Make time every day to recharge with exercise, healthy eating, and activities unrelated to work. An energized, focused founder builds a thriving company.
To stay accountable, rigorously measure progress. Define key performance indicators for both quantitative goals and daily habits. Collect data religiously - sales numbers, customer metrics, reading hours logged, health stats, etc. Numbers don't lie. Use them to maintain motivation and course-correct when necessary.
When stumbles happen, embrace them as opportunities for growth. Neither Graham nor Tan achieved extraordinary success without overcoming adversity. Resolve to fail fast, learn quickly, and try new approaches. With grit and perseverance, any founder can eventually find their recipe for victory.
And acknowledge small wins. Completing an ambitious milestone deserves celebration and renewed motivation. Use minor accomplishments as springboards to attempt greater feats. Savor progress while striving for more.
Lastly, optimize your schedule for deep focus and productivity. Experiment to find your peak hours for "maker mode" work. Then protect this time religiously to sharpen your competitive edge.
Approach each new year with zest and direction. Blend vision and action, progress and balance, to maximize your potential. With the right resolutions, you can make your next year a remarkable one!
To summarize:
Focus - Be rigorous about tracking key performance indicators and metrics every month. Set up dashboards and systems to monitor progress towards your most important goals. Test and iterate to find the metrics that best indicate the health of your business.
Efficiency - Make it a habit to download and review monthly bank statements and cash outflows. With young companies, cash is king, so you need your finger on the pulse of burn rate and runway. Find ways to cut unnecessary spending and extend your capital efficiency.
Manage Expectations - Sit down with investors and set realistic 3-year targets for the business, not pie-in-the-sky 10-year goals. Lay out clear milestones to hit, and the funding required, to get to the next stage of growth. Money follows milestones.
Stay Narrow - Don't get distracted trying to monitor countless competitors. Stay obsessed with your metrics for customer acquisition, engagement, and marketing ROI. Refine your unique positioning.
Maintain Your Culture - As you scale, don't lose the startup energy. Stay accessible to employees, celebrate wins of all sizes, and keep the focus on customers and products.
Fitness as Fuel - Make time 4-5 days a week for exercise. Not only is it good for reducing founder stress, but you will have more energy to tackle challenges and remain focused on your mission. Fit founders build fit companies.
Best,
Brian
