Do Things that Don't Scale

It takes enormous discipline to NOT try to scale something that's working. But some things just don't scale -- and trying to do so can destroy the golden goose in the process. Many entrepreneurially minded people can't help themselves from trying.

While it did seem fairly easy to build, it was a dilemma, because one of the big lessons from my first company was to focus. After my first company died, I did an inventory of the projects I had worked on in the last year. There were something like 30 projects that I had started on and not finished. My total weakness was not focusing on things. So

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So why wouldn't all founders start by engaging with users individually? Because it's hard and demoralizing. Sales gives you a kind of harsh feedback that "marketing" doesn't. You try to convince someone to use what you've built, and they won't. These conversations are painful, but necessary. I suspect from my experience that founders who want to re... See more