The Startup Therapy Couch™: Reason 2 of 7 your startup is failing - "Your pride gets in the way"

Reason #2: Too much pride, not enough coachability
Pride can be very useful, especially if you're a lion. (HA)

When you're an entrepreneur, however, pride can get in the way of hearing where your idea wants to take you. It's easy to think that the original spark and original intent of your idea MUST be the thing and in exactly the way you first imagined it. However, that kind of thinking will cut you off from hearing what your audience wants and what the nuances of the problem you are trying to solve really are.

This is why customer validation and product validation is so incredibly important, no matter what stage you're in. Getting time with real target users, finding out if the problem is painful enough for them to change their habits, spend money, or both is critical to understanding whether you have a viable market. Once you really understand the problem, you can look at your proposed solution and find out if it resonates as a real solution for your users or not. If it's not a good solution for users, whatever the reason or reasons, then there is a very good chance you won't be able to see a return on your investment of time and money.

Listen to your users, listen to those around you offering feedback and advice and new ideas, and be willing to shift and change to meet the needs of your market.

Don't get attached to your idea, get attached to solving the problem your users are having!

Missed the previous episode? Go back to “Reason 1 your startup is failing - Hocus Pocus, Lack of Focus”.