A little more than half a year has passed since we decided to take on our startup . Now it seems eternity has passed - so much has changed and happened during this time. Everything, it seems, turns out as we wanted, but there is one “but” - if we started now, with all our experience, we would have done everything quite a bit differently.

By the beginning of the way we came prepared, as it seemed to us - read a bunch of relevant books, articles, tips and reviews. At the same time, during this time we have developed a set of rules, without which, as it seems to us, simply nothing. It would be better to call them "anti-rules" because they most often contradict the things that are usually written in the relevant articles and books.

Some ideas may look rather harsh and ambiguous, therefore, for the faint of heart and people with a keen sense of beauty, please do not be insulted and pass by. All the rest - welcome under habrakat.
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Most articles usually write that a startup is hard, you have to work a lot, think only about the project, forget about everything else, and so on. In our opinion, all this is complete nonsense, and a startup should, first of all, enjoy. Especially, considering that most of us (you) are relatively young and full of life - spending it on thinking hard to think seems even more stupid.

And so, how to make a start-up that is pleasant, allows you to reach the goal and at the same time enjoy life? There is a suspicion that you have already read a huge pile of articles on the subject of your business. We can assume that everything that is written there is true, except:

1. Do not have to work much

Most likely you will spend almost all your time, except for sleep and food, on your startup. On the one hand, this is good, but on the other hand, you will (a) get tired and (b) lose the course. The problem is that the more you work, the more chance you have to get involved in the standard workflow and stop thinking creatively. As a result, you will turn into a standard office worker who has a set of tasks to perform and 10-12 hours a day to work. Perhaps what you will do will be useful and necessary, but one day you will understand that there are key points that have not been made, and you, for some reason, did not even think about them. Relax, make yourself a weekend, think about anything, and do whatever you want. Sooner or later, your thoughts will still return to the startup, but this time you will look at him with a fresh head. There is one more trick, but about him - later.

2. The world is full of idiots

We do not want to offend anyone, but this is true. Fortunately, we did not come across extreme cases, and all our clients are quite adequate and pleasant people. But there were many other people who, fortunately, did not become our clients, potential investors and just acquaintances who surprised by their “thoughts”. There were those who came to the demo and wrote "hy" wherever possible, deleted everything that was deleted and left. There were also those who for a very long time got to the bottom of the project with the interest of monkeys, promising a bag of money, and later disappeared. There were still competitors ... And so it seems it will always be. It is better to prepare for this in advance. Do not waste your time on them. Five minutes is enough to understand whether the person / company is worth your time. If not, leave. There will be new, better and more.

3. Rest must be stormy

Suppose you need to work a lot, but you don’t want to get tired / lost. Only one way out - rest a little, but rest violently in order to air out to the fullest. For us, the option “to swell for two days” works, and even before losing consciousness. It is advisable, at the same time, to go away, but with good company, so that the atmosphere is comfortable. After this “airing”, you seem to be teleporting back to the office, as if you didn’t work there. All projects will look completely different. For those who do not drink, I am sure there are other methods - skiing, hiking, fishing / hunting, parachuting, hiking, and more. By the way, returning to drinking, this list can be combined with alcohol - checked :)

4. Sex (in moderation)

We are all different, but from our experience, sex is the best motivator. Moreover, its absence as well as its excess interferes with progress. Therefore, sex in the life of startups is very important, but you need to comply with the measure. With an excess of sex there is a risk of becoming lazy and generally to score at all. For those who have a permanent woman, everything should be like that. Who does not - there are modern solutions to this problem, but this is beyond the scope of this article. By the way, if you work too hard, you hardly want sex. And this is very bad - it is better to take the day off right away and combine points 3 and 4, otherwise you, again, risk losing and forgetting why everything started at all.

5. Communicate

If you are not a social phobia, then in paragraph 3 you will communicate with friends / wives in any case. But here we are talking about more professional communication. There are various conferences, seminars, gatherings and other meetings of startups and other people in your area (or similar to yours). Even if it seems uninteresting and useless to you, it’s all the same, don’t sit at work, but take business cards, good mood and go to a crowd of strangers, talk about anything, but most likely about your startup. So you, first, get to know a lot of people like you (useful in points 3 and, possibly, 4), and share your ideas with other people (read - advertising). If you burn with enthusiasm, people will surely remember you (and your project too). Drive on all sorts of unique ideas, know-how, and more. The more you talk about your project, the more you understand what you are doing and the more you will have new, creative ideas.

6. Enjoy

If you already liked points 1-5, you can skip this one - he will come. The point is that your startup is not a job, but a life full of adventures and new, unexpected turns. Drinking with friends, raising the server from the ruins at 5 am or proving to investors that you are the best, you need to rejoice in everything. Every mistake is an experience, and every failure is an opportunity. That's the way it is worth looking at things. Think less about yourself and personal problems - the more time you spend on it, the less you do.

Finally, I would like to say that a startup looks like a cold pool. If you think and go slowly - hard and cold. But if you dive from the run and immediately swim - the water seems very pleasant. We hope our ideas will come to the benefit of habravchanam. We wish you all successful startups and congratulations on the coming one!

Team Tree.io / Giteso .