You see someone who looks like she’s great with people and you assume she’ll be a sales star. Or you see a pale-faced nerd and you assume he’ll be a great engineer. The friendly lady turns out to be unable to sell. The nerd turns out to be a terrible engineer. Don’t make quick judgments…

Your staff wants to know who the boss is. “Who do I report to?” “What is my job description?” “How am I doing? Am I exceeding or falling short of expectations?” That’s it. Make sure everyone can answer these questions and you’ll have happy staff and your company will move forward.

You will forget the lessons you’ve learnt. That’s why you need to write down what you’re learning. That way you can refer back to your old lessons, and refresh your memory. The alternative is to keep making the same mistakes over and over again.

The world doesn’t always work the way you want it. You’ll be fired. You’ll be insulted. You’ll be side-lined. How you respond to setbacks will determine the outcome. You can’t respond in the right way if you’ve lose your cool. Be cool. Keep your head whilst others lose theirs.

If you don’t have enough information, it’s likely you will not make a good decision. That’s why snap decisions are generally poor. Judge whether a decision is urgent or not. If urgent, take the risk of a quick decision. If not urgent, wait. It’s easy to make bad decisions quickly.

The Founder Trap can happen when your company moves from startup stage to mature stage. It happens when the founder refuses to delegate effectively or hire the talent needed to grow. The founder traps the business in perpetual startup mode, not allowing it to mature. Are you in a founder trap?

If you’re one of the team, you can be a joker. When you’re the boss, you can’t. Resist the urge to make your wisecracks. You’re the leader, people are looking up to you. Don’t be too jokey jokey.

Sometimes things are hectic. You must work hard, travel, sacrifice. But sometimes things are good. Resist the “guilt” emotion to look busy, to make yourself busy. Use the breather to take care of your health, spend time with your family, read. The whole point of being an entrepreneur is to be able to enjoy your…

You don’t need to control everything in an environment where your staff truly participate. Your team will know what needs to be done, and will do it. The more your staff commit to your cause on a voluntary basis, the fewer hierarchies and control mechanisms you need. Get your team buy-in.

Hire for attitude first, skills second. Find people who are eager, smiley, energetic. Nothing should be too much trouble. Fill your company with people like that and you will move mountains. You can’t beat a good attitude.

When your business is small, it’s easy to understand all the domains. As you grow it’s harder. Finance gets complicated. Operations gets complicated. Technology gets complicated. You can’t be expected to be a domain expert on everything, but you must still be in charge. The answer is find people that are experts, and you can…

A man walks through the desert for a week, no water or food. He comes across an oasis with a village. In the middle of the village is a pile of watermelons. He starts running for the watermelons. The village chief grabs him by the arm and says, “What are you doing?” The man says,…