Unbearable lightness of 'exploring my options'

People are nicer when you don't ask for stuff.

People are nicer when you don't ask for stuff.

Since leaving Beamery, I've been exploring what comes next. Talking to people, scanning the market, writing down my bets for the future. Honestly, I like it quite a lot.

Reading success stories gives you inspiration. Reading startup post-mortems makes you think: Those idiots. I'd never make such obvious mistakes.. You run ideas past your favourite thinking machine, asking it to spot holes in your logic.

The slight unease starts when people ask about your plans. It's not that you don't have any. You've got a few and you've been honing them in the absence of real voices. But when people ask, you gloss over them saying they're just working theses.

It's hard to put yourself out there. The moment you get serious about a problem, you're putting your ego on the line. The people on the other side of table sense this all too well. So they give you a compliment. What psycho would put someone down when they're walking on eggshells explaining their ideas?

But to get to the pot of gold we're all after, whether it's peer recognition or actual gold, we've got to put our egos on the line. Be vulnerable, get feedback, fail quick. It's all too easy to bury your head in the sand and stay in your mental echo chambers.

Here's the advice for myself: Chose the promising problem. Do the "mom test". Dig yourself into a hole.