The lies that we tell ourselves for our beloved Startups. We’re all too ashamed to admit it, of course, but at one point everybody who is starting up a business thought at least one of the following. Don't we?

2. Despite all negative aspects of lying,
people still choose to disguise the truth in
order to try to fool others and, in
particular, themselves.

3. “ I can make the next Google, I wish I had
enough Money
 Sure, cash is important, but to help you
grow, not to help you get started.
 You don’t need cash for the first prototype,
you don’t need cash to make something
work.
 Cash can help you expand, it cannot help
you innovate, work harder and find out
what customers want.

4. “ I have this great Idea, Now I need to hire
a team of developers.
 You may not be a very technical person,
which leaves you with two options: either
you get technical or you find a technical
partner with whom to share profit and loss.
 Look at it this way: if you know nothing
about technology, who can you manage a
team of people you hire?
 And respectively: if you can’t convince at
least one developer to devote his effort to
you idea, how are you going to go after
users / customers.

5. “ Success = Planning, lack of Success is due
to lack of Planning.
 This is a half-lie: planning, to some extent in
necessary.
 However, when you’re starting up, doing is
more important than planning.
 Your team probably has under 5 members,
so human resource is scarce.
 Don’t waste it by writing plans and
documents which bring little or no value to
the actual customers.
 More often then not: lack of success is due to
lack of action.

6. “ Well the product is not ready so far.
 Again, it’s a half-lie.
 Yes, your product isn’t ready for the real
world.
 But if you keep it behind closed doors, it will
never be ready, because it will never be
exposed to the harsh eye of the market
 and you’ll never get the feedback which will
help you improve.

7. “ How about a viral campaign, we shall
make one? A successful “Viral Campaign”.
 Look, viral is just a word, not some checkbox
you can tick.
 You can make something go viral by either
having a lot of experience and resources or
by getting really really lucky.
 To me, saying you’ll make your startup /
product / campaign go viral is like saying
your business plan is winning the lottery.
 (I also really like people who stay awake at
night to build brands for something that has
no customers, no prototype and it’s basically
just an idea.)

8. “ By my excel calculations we shall capture
5% of the WWW space. I’m excited.
 Now, this is the sort of lie which can make
you look either delusional or stupid.
 Rather focus on the real feedback you got
from your first ten users (even if two of
them are your parents and five of them are
your friends).
 It’s not a lot, but at least it’s honest. You’re
too small to think about even 5% of a big
market.
 And remember: there are only two things
which can go from zero to over a billion in
less than two years: cancer and Groupon.

9. “ Why on earth you want to focus on Niche
Market. The Whole World will use Us.
 If you invented soap 200 years ago, that
might have been accurate, although I have
serious doubts.
 Saying anyone can use something points out
you have no idea what you’re talking about.
 Bite your tongue, do your research, ask for
user/customer feedback and come up with
an answer closer to “small and medium
businesses, employing up to 50 knowledge
workers, in fields like technology, sales,
marketing, analytics, human resources and
recruiting ”.

10. “ Will participate into XYZ Conference /
Seminar , Our valuations will peak up.
 Yes, social events are essential for expanding
your social network, talking about your
product, getting opinions and maybe getting
some people interested.
 Just don’t imagine that after walking in
people will start throwing money at you.
 Also, don’t expect that by attending some
obscure coaching session which charges
200EUR you’ll become enlightened.
 Sure, ask yourself in all honestly “Do I really
expect to learn something new that will
make me 200EUR or more?”
 Usually the answer is NO.

11. “ I have this Fucking amazing book. Let me
Read this, see you guys in office tom.
 Oh come on, there’s virtually a handful of
successful entrepreneurs, but millions of …
well… people who buy self-help books.
 How do you explain the staggering
difference ?
 Starting up a company is about making
combinations of decisions that is unlikely to
have even occurred before, ever.
 Much less is it likely to have been written
about. My personal opinion (and a harsh 1) is
that if you expect to get the answers to
starting up from a book, any book … save
yourself the trouble and get a job.

12. “ No No No, I won’t share my Idea, What if
you Steal and become the next Facebook?
 I think this is my favorite, because it’s so hilarious.
 Most ideas aren’t worth the paper they are
scribbled on.
 Businesses are not ideas, they are the processes
made to make that idea have a real life
representation.
 Even if you steal the idea, you’d still need to put
into it a lot of work, sweat, tears, inspiration,
desperation, money and confidence before it blips.
 Bottom line, anyone who is allegedly afraid to
share what he’s working on either suffers from
delusions of grandeur or is afraid that everyone
will think his idea is shit.

13. “Nevertheless, the question that we must ask
ourselves is not how much worse things can
get. If we look upwards instead of fearing
demotion, we soon realize that, through
lying, we restrain ourselves to living in little
corners. Fear of virus and bacteria should not
prevent us from opening the window and
breathing fresh air.

14. “

15. abhishek.shah@live.com