Build what's missing / by Alexander Lyadov

How do you build something that doesn’t exist? Y Combinator startup accelerator founder Paul Graham wrote, “Live in the future and build what’s missing.” One phrase captures the present, the future, and action to turn one into the other.

Working with company founders, I see a variety of challenges. One finds it difficult to accept the bitter reality of the present because it would destroy the coveted image of self. Another gets sucked into the swamp of routine and has no time, or rather mental energy, to clearly describe the future the company is supposedly heading toward. But if there is no target, you can hit the bull’s-eye only by accident. The third one understands everything correctly, but the key decisions which can quickly increase the value of the business are for some reason not taken in any way. False assumptions invisibly entangle the mind and make it only unproductively twitch from side to side, like a bumblebee in a web.

Man is a value-oriented being. This means that of all the variety of the world around us, we notice only what preserves and develops our lives. In fact, this is why the same event will strike you deeply in the soul, while your neighbor will only shrug his shoulders. It’s the same with opportunities, dangers, resources, and tools — we only see them when we really need them. Thus, when falling from a tree, the hand involuntarily grasps any object whose function is to keep us from hitting the ground.

Therefore, it is important for every entrepreneur to know at all times what is good and evil, but not in an abstract sense, but specifically for his business and in general for his life.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander


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