The Wisdom List: Leif Abraham

Understand your audience. You must know who, precisely, you are building for. Understanding this early on in your company life cycle can be especially powerful, as it allows you to prioritize acquisition efforts. The hope is to build an early user base that will drive you toward your end goal.

Create an emotional connection with users. Some companies have users, others have fans. The difference is emotional connection and mission alignment. Building a true fanbase helps acquisition, product development, competitive differentiation and retention.

Prepare for anomalies. Building a startup requires extraordinary adaptability. What seems fixed one day may be fluid the next. To capitalize on volatility, it’s worth preparing a playbook for low-probability, high-impact events. When the next Black Swan hits, your business will be ready.

Focus until it hurts. Simply avoiding opportunities you aren’t interested in anyway is not a sign of focus. True focus involves sacrifice. That means turning away from opportunities you believe could be highly impactful, for the sake of something bigger. Succeeding in doing so is a superpower.