According to an MIT study, the average age of a successful start-up founder is 42. This busts the myth about miracle “children” in their 20s establishing new unicorns. Let Mark Zuckerberg starting at his 19, be the honourable exception. The average age of the most successful “start-upers” is even higher - 45 years!

When a person turns 45, he/she has some experiences, results, fails, and restarts. Their journey was not so straightforward as for the handful of young “chosen ones”. At the same time, it is often thanks to youngsters that they realize living in this way and working for somebody else is not something they want to carry on.

Starting a business is a big draw for a lot of people. Basically, this topic is an enormous information business since a vast number of people, who enjoy consuming more and more of motivational “hype” material, are thinking about it. The few who not only think, but actually try to start a business, usually have more or less resigned to the fact that it will not be a piece of cake, and they are going to have to learn an immense amount of new stuff and sometimes even get to the end of their tether.

But it’s not even that “simple”. The one and only Bruce Lee used to say: “Empty your cup so that it may be filled”. This is not what all the “How to become a millionaire” books are talking about. If you have stayed in a corporate job for, let’s say, 10 years, the challenge will be far from just learning new things and understanding new contexts. You will have to break your habits that stand in the way of your success. These habits actually have worked well so far. They look innocent. They might have been good servants in your job. However, in business, they can be the beginning of the end.

In the following lines, I want to share with you the experiences of companies and people I know, have worked with, and talked to about their experiences, as well as my own. I am writing this in the belief that if some part of the article can give a name to what you are experiencing right now, you will be able to think and improve the situation, address it until it’s too late, make a change for the better, or spare yourself an avoidable mistake. Here they come...

1. I Was Bold Enough to Quit My Job. There Is No Way I Can Fail!

Jumping from a running train (company) into the unknown (business) takes some courage (or madness). Even more so if you are like Al Bundy - married with children. Suddenly, you find yourself in a void. Or rather in the water, without a boat, without colleagues, without guidelines, without anything. But you are committed, and you know, you can do it. Just because you were daring enough to quit your job. As long as you have strong faith in yourself, congratulations. That is, only if you can admit that you actually have no idea what you are doing, whether you are doing it right, and whether it will work. More accurately, only in cases when you are constantly trying to find out the right thing, you are struggling to see the reality, you want feedback, and you are striving to figure out as soon as possible the fact that it does not have to work in this way. 90 % of people fail as entrepreneurs, yet they believe that they don’t belong among these 90 %. It is not actually a bad habit, but a feeling you are quitting your corporate carrier with. Bias. On the one hand, you need it to be confident, but you need to constantly confront it with reality. It is unpleasant to hear that you are doing it wrong, to recognize that it is not working. But it is the outmost necessity.

2. Fruitless Regular Meetings? - We Don’t Need Them!

Corporations are known for their typical, regular meetings. One meeting after another. Reason - unknown, but it is expected. What are five meetings per week for? What is the outcome? Why is there always something going on but nothing coming out of it? Why do they come up with new projects that end up not being implemented at all? Why does the European head go to visit a local branch just to sit there all-day answering calls from the HQ? No! No meetings in start-ups!

This is a cheap simplification of a pretty fundamental thing. On the contrary, meetings are a crucial part of company management. The problem is that only a few people can keep them short, effective, structured, and with pre-prepared content. A weekly meeting gives your team a rhythm. It “forces” everybody to bring something to the table, even in moments they are not feeling like doing anything, when the energy is low, and the mood is poor. Nobody dares to come to the meeting empty-handed.

Insist on regular meetings and make them so the others want to come to them, so that they are a benefit and a motivator for everyone.

3. Do Not Tell the Bad News to the Boss

Fortunately, not everywhere, but in many companies, management and employees quickly learn to say what the “highness” wants to hear. They understand what pleases him/her, what makes him/her angry, what to watch out for etc. This condition easily gets to the point where problems are not solved and are brought to the table too late. Most of the time, it is when the problem becomes monstrous, or when it can be submitted safely so there is no one to blame.

In start-ups, there is something like “individual proactive responsibility” within which everybody is responsible for their area of interest and if they experience some troubles, they do not talk about them, which is a lot worse as if the problems were more frequent, but discussed with others. It is good when you are not afraid to say: “We do it like this; it does not work at all”. And the founder wants to hear it, he/she is then able to response to it and (although sometimes in a rather inpatient mood) address it. A start-up founder is actually more upset when there is nothing to address because it looks like their company is not going anywhere. Of course, they also like to relax sometimes, and I am simplifying it right now, but basically, these are the facts.

4. Excell Sheet VS Paper

In corporations, there is a whole bunch of presentations, valuations, SWOT analyses and God-knows-what-else for each project before the project is finally launched (it is often not implemented at all and just disappears into thin air. And some people, including me, particularly enjoy messing around with Excel. However, the fact that a couple of numberphiles find it amusing and it looks smart hardly means that it is effective.

People in corporations are promoted for this “performance” regardless of the actual benefit. As an entrepreneur, you create such a table like two times until you realize that the same result can be achieved with a pencil and paper in your hands within like a half an hour. It is good to ask yourself the good old Sinek’s question right off the start: “Why am I doing this?” Do I really need to create an excel sheet with formulas and contingency tables to find out that, with this business model, I will be in the black in 10 years?

5. I Don’t Have to Do This the Best I Can, Somebody Will Check It After Me

By virtue of the majority of new suggestions, important presentations and decisions in corporation are subjected to a popular “approval”, it may happen that you are not going to give that particular job your maximum, you are not going to get it perfect. You just do it somehow so it makes sense and you wait, what will your boss come up with. He/she might say: “It is not bad, but we still need to add this and that.”

In business, there is no boss who will check it out for you, send it back to you for correction, or throw it back at you. Neither is somebody who tells you how good it is. The results of your business are your feedback, and it is a pretty ultimate thing to compare to your bosses feedback. The sooner you recognize and break this habit, the better.

6. Working to Please Somebody

I wonder if there is anyone among you who has always thought only about what the outcome will be and never thought for a second about what anyone will say about it. How will it impress the boss or colleagues.

The circumstances of the business will quickly lead you to deal primarily with the execution and the outcome. Some people can keep themselves in the company for years just by speaking to please everyone and regardless of the execution and outcomes. And even if you are not like that - once you spend several years in such an environment, it is not completely without consequences. Try to think about it.

7. I Work 24/7 to Avoid Working 9 to 5

You can find this sentence in a vast number of articles and motivational quotes. Some entrepreneurs like to brag about it. It is, however, pretty unhealthy nonsense. If you did not happen to have Elon Musk’s body and brain, who assumably can withstand those 100 hours of work per week, there is no way you could survive something like this, not to mention it won’t lead to any results.

You will have to work 24/7 only in case you don’t change your approach to work. An acquaintance of mine, a successful entrepreneur, once told me that 8-hour working time was invented to keep people coming to work and showing some activity. An average, capable person, who thinks about their productivity, is able to finish such a job within 2 hours.

An entrepreneur might work 14-15, and more hours from time to time, when it is necessary (and he/she definitely has no problem about it). but an entrepreneur needs to have a bright mind, clear head, and energy. And this is achievable only by quality sleep, lifestyle, meditations, exercising, regular application of the Pareto principle, and continuous improvement of delegation. It is not about intensity; consistency is the key. Thus, it is necessary to set a sustainable daily rhythm.

8. Repeating the Same Mistakes (They Look Different from Other Perspective)

I thought I knew how to hire people, that I could lead a team, that I understood numbers. This was the case for one specific department within the company. But when you lead your own company, no matter how small it is, everything gets new dimensions. Suddenly, you have a responsibility for everything. For contracts, authorities, formalities. Basically, everything that is going to happen from now, is subjected to your decision.

In such a new situation, you will not lose your previous experiences. You just forget to use them since you are just overwhelmed. You relax, you slack off, you don’t go into the depths of some things; you just skim their surface. And then, all of a sudden, it snaps, and you are like: “How is that possible, I have already made this mistake?!”

It is right not only to use the previous experience, but also enrich it, read the up-to-date articles on the topic, read books, write everything down, repeat it. A mistake done repeatedly hurts more than before. Both you and your budget.

9. Underestimating Contracts and Formalities

There is a huge difference between having a reputable Prague law firm with almost unlimited hours on a monthly retainer and having nothing but your wits and a few spare thousands for legal consultancy at best.

Similarly, it is different to revise a contract knowing that if you make a mistake, the worst that can happen is the company ends up losing a few thousands (or millions) and the boss will “yell the hell out of you”. Or to write a contract that if you mess it up, you could lose your house or risk being in court with someone for years.

I still remember some of my former colleagues who kept complaining when the finance department insisted on a shorter invoice maturity, a signed cooperation agreement, and suspension of the supply of services upon overdue invoices. I can guarantee that once you feel these “schoolboy” mistakes on your own, you will never underestimate this again, and you will admit that the annoying colleagues from the finances were right.

10. Supervision of Cash Flow and Costs

Corporate budgets sometimes work as subsidies. “We need to spend it this year, otherwise they won’t give it to us next time.” It is outstanding logic and also a way to throw your money out the window.

Don’t know how to use LinkedIN? Let’s hire the most expensive consultant agency; they will do a workshop for 100 grand. Do we feel strange here and we don’t even know why we came here? Bang! Three-day training course on “happiness at a workplace” for a quarter of a million.

Of course, I agree that investing in employees is one of the crucial things. However, if you have someone else’s, essentially anonymous, allocated budget, you have no relationship to it. You will certainly be rational, logical, but never as consistent in deciding whether what you have invested your budget in will actually make the company many times more money. It’s just not your prime motivation.

Attention! The skilful founder leaving the corporation, starting his/her first start-up, and runs it from investments from the very beginning, finds him/herself in a very similar situation. It is the same story again and again. There is money, it is someone else’s, I can go with it, or I’ll ask for more.

From my personal point of view, every start-up should generate some money for itself, and at least partially cover its expenditures before it raises the first money (I am not counting the FFFs - fools, friends, and family). Not only that this test shows the meaningfulness of a business better; it also teaches the founder how to manage money better.

11. Growth Focus VS Asset Creation

In a corporation - a ready, successful company - nobody really cares much whether you have improved something there and there a bit, adjusted a process, or created a guideline. Company growth is the key driver. Growth of the turnover and the customer basis. The company itself is already established.

In a business, and mainly in start-ups, growth is important. As well as what has been left after the growth. What will be the company’s value when you and your team leave?

Granted that you tried something like this in a corporation, but to no avail, your moment will come in business. Create processes, write guidelines, make instruction videos, draw the workflow, mind-maps, improve contracts with lawyers, get inspired by new software. You are going to have to work so hard at it that you are going to be sick of it, and with a smile on your face you will sometimes recall how “fine” it was when almost nothing relied on your “gadgets”. However, at the end of it all, your successful, stable company with a high valuation will rise.

12. Lack of Market Knowledge

I keep repeating this point over and over again and I am amazed how many companies and people don’t know the market they are in. It is not an exception to see a start-up in the accelerator that presents its app, and on the question on competition you just googled on your phone, they respond: “What? What is that? Dunno this stuff.”

It is even worse if a corporation, or its employees, that has been in a business for decades, knows nothing about how many companies are there in their target market; what are the key segments of it; what are individual use-cases, how much money flows through the market etc.

A market is like a pitch on which you play. And assuming that you want to play on a pitch, it is good to know, how big it is, from where to where it spreads; what are its rules, and who plays on it with you. Try to imagine you would be unaware of this in any sport. What would be the result? Definitely not a win, more likely an injury of some sort.

Donald Valentine from Seqoia Capital, which has invested in corporations like Apple, Google, Oracle, or PayPal, says: “We do not look for products, nor founders. We look for markets.” Got it?