Avoid receiving any sort of feedback, encouragement, or criticism without filtering it carefully.
Entrepreneurship is still a contradictory topic. It’s common to receive two types of feedback:
- Friends or other dreamers who assure you that your business is a unicorn.
- Concerned family members and close friends who are afraid that you’ll fail, get depressed, flip out, or whatever.
None of those is helpful to an entrepreneur. What may be valuable is listening carefully to a specific form of feedback regarding your process or the product-market fit.
How to Filter Feedback Effectively
- Source Evaluation: Consider the experience and expertise of the individual offering feedback. Are they familiar with your industry? Have they successfully navigated a similar challenge?
- Relevance Check: Assess the applicability of the feedback to your specific situation. Is it timely? Does it relate to a current problem or goal?
- Emotional Detachment: It’s easy to become emotionally invested in your venture, but emotions can cloud judgment. Approach feedback objectively, valuing its merit rather than the tone it delivers.
- Consult Multiple Sources: While one perspective can be biased or limited, diverse opinions can offer a more rounded view. Seek advice from multiple trusted sources, but still apply rigorous filtering.
- Trial and Error: Sometimes, the best way to validate feedback is through implementation on a small scale. Monitor results closely to determine if broader implementation is warranted.
- Self-Trust: Ultimately, you know your business better than anyone else. Trust your instincts and insights, using external feedback as a tool for validation or adjustment rather than a roadmap.
And you can deduct some conclusions and refine your process further.
But your “groupies” may slow you down while your concerned friends will empower your hesitations.
Once you’re convinced that your business is worth it and you are ready to enter the long journey of building a rock-solid business, focus and don’t let distractions get in the way.
Hard work and hustling are all you need to succeed with the right idea in place.
I have written the book, “126 Steps to Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur: The Entrepreneurship Fad and the Dark Side of Going Solo” to help those who are aspiring to become entrepreneurs. Check it out along with the entrepreneurship guide on my blog for your regular dose of entrepreneurship advice.
I provide a no-BS take on the startup world and project only the reality for beginner entrepreneurs who want to make it through in the first months of their business, and beyond. Just visit Growth Shuttle to tap into my advisory plans.