Just STFU

The best advice I ever got was to STFU and listen.

Entrepreneurs are taught to believe that we shouldn’t listen, in fact listening puts us at a distinct disadvantage. If we listen to the status quo or competitors or potential investors, we will fail.

(Of course, to make it complicated, we should listen to customers, and people that actually invested, and maybe mentors too – well, not all mentors, just the ones that seem to be helpful.)

The traditional origin myth of a couple of folks locking themselves in a basement (or garage) to build the next great company is so hurtful to the actual process of refining your entrepreneurial skillset to be almost criminal.

You cannot listen the world or potential customers while drowning yourself in Red Bull and code. And listening, more than any other skill, when highly refined, is what sets the great entrepreneurs apart from the rest of us.

Now its easy to argue that Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and even Warren Buffet haven’t listened to a word a day in their lives. Its why they are held in such reverence. They, against all odds, from a dorm room or a small office in Omaha, helped to change the world. By themselves. They told the world to STFU, they didn’t listen to anyone!

But, thats the furthest from the truth. They listen intently. They built world-class teams that had the ability to inject their knowledge and opinions. Timeline, for example, would have never existed if not for Sam Lessin, not Zuckerberg.

Great entrepreneurs have the ability to listen to their businesses with an uncanny sense of right and wrong. Almost like a tarot card or palm reader, they listen on a different wave length from the rest of us. And their businesses speak in clear tones and direct lines.

In lesser entrepreneurs, its clearly hubris and ego that forces decision. They listen to no one but themselves. Steve Ballmer is nowhere near the entrepreneur that Bill Gates is, and Microsoft’s new place as a fast follower is indicative of a CEO who cannot hear what their business needs and is driving blind as to the needs of the business. He isn’t listening. He hasnt STFU.

Take a moment and think about how you run your company. The questions you have about what needs to be done. Are the answers coming because you know them to be right, or because its the need of the business?

BTW - great investors have the ability to help entrepreneurs STFU and listen. It can be a refined skill. I find that in the morning, when I spend the first 2 hours of the day without speaking, and do my writing, meditating, exercise, etc. that period of STFU allows me to really evaluate the needs of the business, and to just listen.

You cannot learn without listening, and you cannot listen without STFU.

*As a bonus, check out John Francis’ TED talk on being silent for 17 years. Amazing.