Whilst spending time with my newborn son in the last 48 hours, I realized that it's possible to draw a lot of comparisons between how founders act within their startups and how parents do with their newborn babies.

The one comparison that particularly jumped out at me, is how new parents (any parents?) believe that their baby is just the most beautiful baby in the world. I've yet to meet a parent who doesn't believe that their baby is the most beautiful in the world and I'd be lying if I didn't admit I have the same feeling about my newborn son.

I don't care that rationally this might not be the truth. I can even accept the fact that I'd never be able to prove this or that with 6bn-odd people on the earth, that this is statistically very improbable. This doesn't matter though, because I believe this to be the truth.

And this is how I believe startup founders should view their own businesses: in their eyes, it should be the best in the world. Founders need to have the kind of conviction & determination to make their startups succeed, even if all rationale odds indicate to the contrary. In most cases - and especially in the early stages of a startup - the rationale stuff doesn't matter; instead it's about chasing that burning fire called passion and working hard to execute your idea(s). It doesn't matter whether a sexier startup exists out there.

Your startup will flourish with the kind of love & attention you'll direct to it if this were your mindset.

The Lean Startup approach to creating new business has become massively popular amongst online entrepreneurs for one reason: it works. The Lean Startup methodology with regards to customer development (broadly) dictates that we can create better products (and thus business) through continuous learning via being in constant contact with our customers.

I believe that this approach works well, but only after you actually have a first version (whether it's MVP or more extensive) out in the wild. I've got a couple of cautions (which I've listed below), but it is summarized well by this well-known quote from Henry Ford:

"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would've said faster horses."

Vivek Ravisankar has a nice post about this, where he explains how he stopped asking users which features they wanted to see in the product and instead asked them which problems they were facing. Doing that, he has enabled himself (or his team) to solve the problem in their own way. For Henry Ford this meant designing the Model T Ford, instead of trying to create faster horses.

Here's a couple of reasons why I'd suggest avoiding customer feedback prior to releasing version 1.0 of your product:

1. Confusion. Imagine this: you have identified a big problem and have an idea of how to solve this (which you've validated with your potential target market). Now you start talking to users about the features & specifics of your solution and they are just brainstorming like crazy, spewing out the one suggestion / request after the other. Problem is all of this is theoretical and based on assumptions, which makes your task of figuring out what should go into 1.0 very confusing. (This same process has much more value when you have a 1.0 out there and users can base feedback on actual, existing features.)
2. It distracts from your core strategy / vision. You're the entrepreneur & visionary here, which means you're in the best possible position to execute your vision. Trying to combine your vision with those of hundred other potential users is a challenging task at best, because you're likely to get 100 different visions. I'm not advocating naivety by just trusting your own vision and gut, but I'm suggesting caution here. Early criticism is like kryptonite to most entrepreneurs and this is likely to halt your motivation to get 1.0 done.
3. Users generally don't know what they want; much less so before version 1.0. This may sound incredibly condescending, but unless your users are experts in the same field as your product, they likely don't know what they want. I say this, because many people are like sheep when it comes to features: "I've heard I absolutely need X, Y & Z for my new website". But the truth in most of these instances is that someone is trying to make money and thus peddling superfluous features that most users won't ever need. Don't discount what your prospective users have to say, but do your own due diligence on every feature request and make sure you're not the one peddling the superfluous features.

Everyone is working to hard. I include myself in that statement: I work too hard most of the time. Heck, in my average week I make compromises with regards to my health, my home life, my marriage and all of my friendships. All for the sake of working harder.

But what's the rush? What's chasing me / pushing me to work this damn hard?

While reading "Why Working So Hard Might Be Doing Your Startup More Harm Than Good" last night, I was reminded of a conversation I had with a friend during a visit to San Francisco last year. It went something like this:

• Friend: So do you guys also pull crazy all-nighters and massive hack sessions, with minimal to no sleep, over at WooThemes?
• Me: Nope. Why would we do that?
• Friend: That's the way startups work. You hustle all the time to get your stuff out quicker.
• Me: Nah, that doesn't really make sense to us. We prefer doing things in our own way, at our own pace. That way our jobs generate the most happiness.
• Friend: *confused look*

I know that GaryVee has made the term "hustle" massively popular and every startup founder / business owner / entrepreneur is supposed to hustle their faces off. I understand that: I've worked incredibly hard along with my cofounders and the rest of the WooTeam to get to where we are today. Nothing happens without hard work & a fierce commitment to chasing one's dreams & goals.

The thing is I'm not an entrepreneur and neither did I cofound a company to hustle my face off all the time. Entrepreneurship & owning my own business is about so much more than just hustling all the time:

• Loving my job;
• Financial security & freedom; and importantly
• Flexibility to allow me to spend more time with family / friends.

I'm not saying that it's impossible to be happy when you're simply hustling all the time. For some entrepreneurs that's fine and if you are happy with all those compromises that it eventually leads to, then who am I to fault you? I do however believe that the constant hustle that is being associated with startups by default these days, has created a distorted view of what it means to start your own business, being your own business and having some fun.

Your startup really shouldn't kill you. If anything it should be an enabler for you to be happier, healthier and work less (at minimum do the work your most passionate about).

I've not stopped working very hard, because I'm ambitious and I love my job. I am however trying to get a much better balance between my work & personal life. Ultimately this freedom is one of the main reasons I ever wanted to be an entrepreneur. Not to hustle my face off.