I made many mistakes, the common pattern in all mistakes was WISHFUL THINKING. I think a really good businessman operates without ANY wishful thinking. I came t

I made many mistakes, the common pattern in all mistakes was WISHFUL THINKING. I think a really good businessman operates without ANY wishful thinking. I came to the conclusion that a good business plan (which by the way should be typed up and hung on the wall so that it is explicit) contains no more than one "wishful" part. VC money might allow for more, I don't know. Anyways, for me it was: * not doing customer development at the very beginning * concentrating on technology instead of customers * not taking into account market forces * not taking into account my economic environment (Eastern Europe != California), reading too many SV blogs * not starting the company when I was younger (started at 27, should have started at 25) I think not concentrating on customers is a common mistake, which could be avoided if for example the book "Four steps to Epiphany" would come up more often, and people would read it before spending 6 months writing code =) http://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Steven-Blank/dp/0976470705 http://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Steven-Blank/dp/09... EDIT: I actually think reading lists like this is not that helpful, at least it wasn't for me. A technical person doens't even know what customer development is. What's technology, it's different in different contexts. What are market forces in your segment, you probably don't even know when you're starting out. I would recommend to talk to a friend who has started a business and has experienced the realities. I have been on the advice-giving end of such a conversation a couple of days ago, and it was shocking to see my mistakes (mostly wishful thinking and lack of ecomomic realities) repeated in my good friends line of thinking. I spent a whole night (8 hours) telling him my insights, it was pretty shocking for him, several times he walked out and then came back, but I was only telling him what I learned the last 2 years. In the end it was a good deal for him.