创业就像荒岛求生

I came across an interesting metaphor today. If you woke up stranded on a desert island, what would you do first? Not dream of building a villa or plan a resort. You'd look at what's around you and work out how to survive the night. Solve today's survival first, then pray a ship passes by. It's a lot like starting a business. Many founders begin by writing a business plan to raise money and aim straight for unicorn status. But the first step shouldn't be the dream, it should be survival. You don't have to wait for product development; you can sell ready stock and solve customers' problems first. You can do the work yourself before hiring a team. You can sell to the people around you and trade your network and time for your first pot of gold. Staying alive matters more than anything. If you waited until you had enough resources, there would be no such thing as starting a business. Airbnb didn't start as a global short-stay platform either. When they couldn't even find hosts, the founders put air mattresses in their own home and hosted the first guests, starting from what they had to solve cash flow. Use what's at hand to get a meal and some water first. Once you're steady, you can build a boat, set sail, maybe even become a unicorn.