Whatever you do, do it with awareness

So much advice going around these days.

Bootstrap! No, get an angel round! No, wait, go for a lot of money quickly, so you don’t have to worry about raising money again! Bullshit, do a friends and family round!

Do something large and scalable! No, do something small and less risky! No, wait, do something that changes the world!

There is no right or wrong way. No best way. Of course you can learn from others, but ultimately you have to find your way.

So whatever you do, do it because you choose to. Do it with awareness. Do it for your own reasons, not because everyone else is doing it. Not because it’s the thing to do these days. Not because you’re irrationally scared of doing it differently.

Gary Vaynerchuk told the story of when he started Vaynermedia. He got a lot of flak for that, people saying it was disappointing that he went into consulting, that he should instead have done something scalable and fancy.

But he didn’t care, because he knew his reasons. He wanted to understand how corporate America works. That was his reason. Because he didn’t understand that, and he wants to buy the Jets, and that’ll cost a lot of money, and corporate America has a lot of money.

Whatever you do, know why you do it. Have awareness.