log 103: little fish

big ocean

This week I was able to meet with a very successful Singaporean CEO who leads an SQL document company based in Singapore. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to ask him a bunch of questions about leading a software technology company. While he was telling me his story, I immediately knew that my path was going to be much different and much harder. Things are not the same as they were 30 years ago. He made me realize that I have a lot more work to put in if I want to build a successful company. There were a few main things that I wanted to learn from this meeting. The first was when to hire. The answer was simple. When I have the money. No money, no hire. Easy enough. But something he said while explaining also made a lot of sense. Hire when I don’t have the knowledge anymore. When I lack the “know how”. This was an immediate wake up call because my father said the same thing a long time ago. I guess CEOs all talk the same. The second thing I wanted to know was if there were any standard operating procedures that I need to follow. The short answer is no, but the long answer is yes. In order to build a good stable company, have good documentation, and disciplined code. Making things work is not enough, make sure operations are clear in their purpose and function. Another big takeaway is that there is no such thing as “futureproofing” code. My idea was to switch my app over to React Native in order to run on web, ios, and android. While I know that this is still needed, I now remember that I have to focus on the next step and not the 11th step. My MVP is the most important thing to me right now. Get the minimum product out and test it again. While doing so, I need to import functions to log what the client is actually doing with my app. Feedback is important, but friends and family will almost always sugarcoat it. And clients are the same. I need to implement functions into my app that log what the client actually does so that I can pivot my app into things that people actually want. Lastly, and most importantly. “Don’t believe your own bullshit.” I think this piece of advice was the most important because sometimes I get stuck in my own head with all the cool things I think I can do rather than focusing on the things that I should be doing. One step at a time is the best way to go.