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Could you help me understand when and how I do that? I don't want my questions to imply something that's not there. I'll tell you why I asked him about confide

Could you help me understand when and how I do that? I don't want my questions to imply something that's not there. I'll tell you why I asked him about confidence. It came after he told me that multiple experienced advisors told him that he was in the storage business and that a storage startup wouldn't work. When I look at the email I get from my viewers, I see that many face similar situations and they worry about the viability of their startups. Rejections like that shatter their confidence. So I asked why it didn't have the same impact on Drew. I thought his answer was a good explanation of how he dealt with the issue.

richardburton 15y ago
Hi Andrew. I hope I do not come across as a troll - I am a massive fan! So let me rephrase. Confidence is the lifeblood of a startup founder. If they do not back themselves, who will? Sometimes over-confidence and even self-delusion can be very dangerous. I once tried to start a music label that gave away all the music for free and made money putting on live shows. I was deluding myself and drunk on my own confidence. The flip-side is what you describe: where people never recover from a knock to their confidence. This is much harder when the opportunity is actually really great. I think it is great to explore the confidence of entrepreneurs. What my pedantic and pernickety side took issue with was the phrasing of the question and the context in which it was asked. Drew had just said he hacked together some code and you launched into a question about the confidence it must have required. I my mind was stuck on the notion that firing up a text-editor required confidence - a ridiculous notion I know but that is where my mind lept. I get the same awkward feeling when people begin any sentence with the word 'surely' because the presupposition is that surely they are right. At that stage of the interview I would have been curious to know when, why and how the storage side-project made the transition from personal use to active user-base. You covered that really, really well later on. Which is why I love Mixergy.
- AndrewWarner 15y ago
  I'm never hurt by feedback like that. I'm grateful for it. Maybe I'm working the confidence question in too much. I'll watch out for that. I want to get really good at doing useful interviews. I need feedback like yours.
  - kn0thing 15y ago
    You're doing it right!

richardburton 15y ago

Hi Andrew. I hope I do not come across as a troll - I am a massive fan! So let me rephrase. Confidence is the lifeblood of a startup founder. If they do not back themselves, who will? Sometimes over-confidence and even self-delusion can be very dangerous. I once tried to start a music label that gave away all the music for free and made money putting on live shows. I was deluding myself and drunk on my own confidence. The flip-side is what you describe: where people never recover from a knock to their confidence. This is much harder when the opportunity is actually really great. I think it is great to explore the confidence of entrepreneurs. What my pedantic and pernickety side took issue with was the phrasing of the question and the context in which it was asked. Drew had just said he hacked together some code and you launched into a question about the confidence it must have required. I my mind was stuck on the notion that firing up a text-editor required confidence - a ridiculous notion I know but that is where my mind lept. I get the same awkward feeling when people begin any sentence with the word 'surely' because the presupposition is that surely they are right. At that stage of the interview I would have been curious to know when, why and how the storage side-project made the transition from personal use to active user-base. You covered that really, really well later on. Which is why I love Mixergy.

AndrewWarner 15y ago
I'm never hurt by feedback like that. I'm grateful for it. Maybe I'm working the confidence question in too much. I'll watch out for that. I want to get really good at doing useful interviews. I need feedback like yours.
- kn0thing 15y ago
  You're doing it right!