从创业失败中学到的七条教训

摘要：每个创业者不可能首次创业就能成功。他们的失败经验，或许可以指导其他创业者获得迅速成功。Joshua Hays在文章《7 things I learned from failing that you can avoid》总结了创业失败后获得的七条教训，希望其他创业者可以从中有所收获，以免犯同样的错误。优快云对该文进行了编译，内容如下：

正如青春期我们会经历分手的痛苦一样，企业家同样会遭受创业失败所带来的打击。我们已经停止Bidzuku方面的工作四个月了，直到现在，我的思想仍然很乱，无法进行有效梳理，找出有用的信息，尽管我尽了自己最大的努力。随着时间的逝去，这种失败的痛苦又将转变继续做某种有意义事情的动力。为了防止其他企业家和我犯同样的错误，我从最近痛苦的创业失败过程中总结出七条教训。

1.不要去想以后，静下来心来做点事情

啥也没干出来之前不要去想上市什么的，这就像还没买彩票就想到自己中大奖的情形。一个想法在没做成之前就是一通废话。

2.不要认为自己比你的合伙人更重要

当到了不得不分配股权的时候（最好你至少有一个最有价值的合伙人），那就把它一分为二吧。尽管创业的点子是你提出来的，钱是你出的，靠的是你的关系，凭借的是你的经验、你的设计和市场，团队也是你组织起来的，但如果没有合作伙伴你仍无法构建出产品。

很不幸，我花了很多时间来证明我自己的贡献，而忽略了这会给我的团队带来怎样的影响。假设你建设了一个成功的团队，你每次承担大量的责任，都是对对方技能的一次互补。如果你在融资前估值，看看你周围的人，问问自己如果没有他们你是否可以达到目的地。如果不能，就把股权进行平均分配。

3.在6个月内完成产品的核心功能，而不是18个月

我认为问题可能出在我们俩对自己的角色定位不准，但最关键点是发布期拖得太长，而大部分责任在我。当我们发布了Alpha版本的产品后，两个资金雄厚的竞争者开始了与我们的竞争。从此，我开始过分强调开发那些可以战胜竞争对手的功能特此，这就导致产品没能及时进入市场。

我下定决心发布一个具有好知名度、完美、功能丰富、无任何Bug的产品。当我们最后终于发布了，得到的却是一个空银行帐号，没有钱支付客户和疲惫的团队。留下的是一个多花了6个多月来开发额外功能的漂亮工作网站。从中我们获得的教训是，迅速发布你的核心功能，之后再开展其他额外的功能。

4.多读，直到读得头大

我很讨厌阅读。直到我的创业公司失败，我才意识到犯了很多无知的错误。坦诚地说，如果我多看些书，尤其是那些关于精益创业方法论的书，至少可以避免一半的错误。

停止寻找各种借口，如果你有时间上厕所，你就有时间阅读。

5.节约成本，不要胡乱花钱

在我旁边放着三盒名片，用来支撑那坏了得画框。我曾经盲目追求产品的特性而浪费了太多金钱，最终却是一无所获。在最开始，不要为项目管理、Git托管、名片、T-shirt之类，投入任何金钱。作为创业者，你应该具备快速把核心产品推向市场的能力。

6. 多花时间与人接触

创业的时候，我每天只抽出20分钟来陪自己的家人和朋友。我整天全身心地扑在事业上，几乎被创业所吞噬。我心中一直有一个信念：我一定要在懵，也就是这一信念使我失去了很多生命中原本更加重要的东西。

作为创业者，我一直在透支自己，也许这种使命感已经渗透进了血液里。我不知道怎么从这种状态中出来，而这就是我最大的失误。我从来没有注意过与人交流时的谈话内容，我永远在想自己的事业。我拒绝社交活动，不跟妻子吃完饭。腾出时间给周围的人吧，离开社会人是会枯萎的。

7.不要害怕失败，拥抱失败

创业者需要百折不挠，敢于挑战权威。知道自己的卓尔不群会让你勇往直前，但也会让你盲目，从而不能全身而退。

我不是打击创业者的积极性，而是告诫广大创业者失败没啥大不了的，你需要提前做好迎接失败的准备。有经验的创业者都会告诉你失败也许是次机会，当失败来临时，你不要只顾着蒙住眼睛害怕，你需要立场坚定，带领自己的团队披荆斩棘。知道怎么应对失败就已经成功了一半。

不要让现在市面上创业企业的成功蒙蔽了，几乎没有一个创始人在首次创业时就能成功。失败是必然，你会让人失望，会怀疑自己，感到压抑 。但你只需重拾信心，继续前行，要相信自己终究能够成功。（编译：陈秋歌 朱慧涛）

原文链接：7 things I learned from failing that you can avoid

Like any juicy breakup from our adolescence, entrepreneurs also crawl their way through similar stages of grief when faced with startup failure. It’s been four months since we discontinued work on Bidzuku and until now, I was unable to string together my thoughts into a coherent and helpful message despite my best efforts. Time has since passed and grief has turned into that burning desire to do something worthwhile again. So, in an attempt to thwart other very eager entrepreneurs from making the same mistakes I did, here are 7 things I learned from my most recent of tragic startup failures.

1. Shut up about equity and build something.

Passing equity around before you’ve done anything is like budgeting your lottery winnings before you’ve even bought the ticket – at this point it’s nothing more than unicorns and rainbows as my developer would say. 21.8% of an idea is 100% of nothing. I’m glad we wasted so much time on it too because I can’t wait to buy groceries this month with my chunk of equity.

2. You are NOT more valuable than your cofounders.

When it does come time to put something down on paper for equity share (you had better at least have an MVP), split it even. It was my idea, it was my money being spent, it was my contacts, it was my experience, it was my design and marketing, and it was my team. Despite all of that, I couldn’t have built the product without my cofounders.

Unfortunately, I spent too much time justifying my contributions and not enough time considering how that affected my team. Assuming you’ve built your team right, you each share a significant amount of responsibility and complement one another’s skills. If you’re pre-money, look at the people around you and ask yourself if you can get to where you need to be without them. If you can’t, split the unicorns and rainbows evenly.

3. Get to your MVP in under 6 months, not 18.

I could argue that two of us were new to some of what our roles demanded, but the bottom line is that it took way too freaking long for us to launch and it was mostly my fault. Two very well-funded competitors dropped out of stealth when we pushed our alpha and I started putting far too much emphasis on competitor-killing features and not enough time getting to market.

I was determined to have a well-branded, polished, feature-loaded, completely bug-free product for launch. When we finally launched I had exactly that plus an empty bank account, no paying customers, and a tired team. Here sits a beautiful working site crammed with 6+ months of additional features, gathering dust. Point is, launch your MVP now and roll out the extra goodies later – I promise you’re the only one who cares.

4. Read until your head explodes.

I always hated reading. In fact my elementary school teachers used to call me an expert skimmer. It wasn’t until after our startup was swallowed up that I realized just how many mistakes I made by being ignorant. I can honestly say that at least half of my mistakes could have been easily avoided if I would have just picked up a book, especially something on lean startup methodology. But like so many of us, I too was a busy and very important entrepreneur.

Stop making excuses, if you have time to sit on a toilet you have time to read.

5. Buy tacos instead of business cards.

Next to me are three boxes of business cards that I’m strategically using to prop up a broken picture frame. My blinding desire to concentrate on features was closely shared with my ill conceived notion that we needed to spend money on stuff. I wasted so much cash on nothing that was important or even remotely necessary. Don’t pay for project management, don’t pay for git hosting, don’t pay for support desks, don’t pay to have a lawyer compose fancy terms of use, don’t pay for business cards, and for the love of god don’t pay for tee-shirts – though mine looks great when I’m changing the oil in my wife’s car.

You should be perfectly capable of getting your MVP to market for next to nothing. Save a few bucks and buy the team a $10 tasty 12-pack of tacos. Joke’s on me though, it was only my life savings and a few credit cards with double digit interest rates.

6. Spend more time with people.

Nearly two years passed by the time we threw in the towel. In that time I got a cat, moved twice, and somehow managed to get married. Between my day job and our fledgling startup I afforded less than 20 minutes a day for friends, family, and my new wife. Needless to say, they were all neglected – including the cat.I lived my startup; there wasn’t a moment I wasn’t engulfed by it. “If I could just get this one thing done” led to missing so many important moments with the people I love.

As entrepreneurs we typically live life in the next moment, it’s in our blood. Not learning to turn this off and at the right times was probably my biggest mistake. I was never really listening to the conversations people were having with me because I was thinking of my startup, I stopped responding to my friends’ invitations to socialize, and I missed too many dinners with my wife. Make time for the people in your life. Unlike great ideas, people expire.

7. Don’t fear failure, expect it.

Part of what it takes to be an entrepreneur is our inability to accept failure, it just doesn’t compute. In one of my more recent answers on Quora, I said:

“To be an entrepreneur takes an infinite amount of courage and we’re built to be defiant. We’re the ones that go left when everyone goes right, say yes when everyone says no, and ignore the statistics that most people live their life’s by. While these very characteristics are what it takes to eventually be successful, they’re also the same characteristics that make it difficult to know when it’s time to quit…”

I’m not saying you shouldn’t be optimistic or try until you can’t try anymore. What I’m saying is that you need to be aware that failure is highly probable, and that if you expect it you’ll be ready to take action. Any seasoned entrepreneur will tell you that failure is an opportunity if you see it as such. Instead of battening down the hatch and covering your eyes when you see it coming, be transparent with your team and decide how to pivot. Knowing how to react and when to do it is half the battle.

Don’t let the picture being painted across the web of glamorous $MM exits or billion-dollar social networks fool you. There isn’t a successful entrepreneur I know who hasn’t failed at something at least once, (most) of these were not the founder’s first attempts. You will fail and when you do you will disappoint people, you will doubt yourself, and you will feel crushed… But you will pick yourself back up again and when you do, you will be successful. It’s what we learn from failure that defines us. Good luck!