Startups Are One Long Chain of Learning New Things
There's a quote from Peter Kazanjy’s book, Founding Sales, that's stuck with me lately: "Startups are just one long chain of learning new things and solving new problems." Learning is one of my core values and so this resonates deeply.
The reality of startup building is you're always facing something new. You never really "arrive" because as soon as you solve one problem, another pops up. It's constant learning, constant adapting. A refiner’s fire of business building.
Here’s how that plays out practically:
Figuring out what matters Startups quickly teach you that not every idea is a good idea. The only way to figure out what's valuable is by constantly engaging with customers, testing your assumptions, and seeing what actually resonates. Each conversation or experiment teaches you something valuable. The market doesn’t lie.
Learning to communicate your ideas You have to talk—a lot. Whether it’s customers, potential partners, investors, or even friends and family, you're constantly refining how you share your vision clearly. Each interaction helps you communicate better and understand your own ideas more deeply.
Balancing feedback and intuition This might be the trickiest one. You’re always hearing different opinions and advice. People love to give advise. Some is good, some is not good. The challenge (and the learning opportunity) is to learn to trust your gut on when to listen and when not too. My current maxim: listen most to those who will give you a check to solve their problem.
Turning ideas into reality Execution is everything. The process of turning concepts into something real—building, launching, iterating—is a never-ending learning cycle. You don't just learn how to build something; you learn how to learn faster and more effectively.
In the end, startups are powerful learning engines. They're a practical, hands-on way to continuously develop your skills and grow as a person. For someone like me, who deeply values learning, there's no better place to be.
#HappyLearning