Startups are exciting. The thrill of building something from nothing, people actually using something that you’ve created and (hopefully) paying you money for it! It can get slightly addictive.
Startups are cool, no doubt! But, your main goal is always to progress from startup to sustainable business. Never lose sight of this. A sustainable business creates real value for it’s users, it changes lives, it changes your life and it gives you the ability to change the lives of those around you. Much, much cooler.
So what’s stopping people from creating a sustainable business? It’s fricken hard, that’s what! Don’t be fooled by the “overnight successes” you read about on Techcrunch. Taking your company from startup to sustainable business is hard work and it never happens overnight!
Learn. Focus.
Educate yourself and commit to constant learning. You learn by doing, you learn by failing (if you reflect). Read books like Startup Focus, The Lean Startup and Getting Real. Get involved in the startup community, go to meetups, go to events, meet people, learn from them, learn from their mistakes.
Some people (not you of course!) love startups so much that they start a few side projects, just for fun. Don’t do it! Focus. Most people have a hard enough time focusing on the right things in one startup, let alone trying to focus on multiple startups. You can’t build a sustainable business without focus.