BizSugar.com › Startups › Before the Startup — A Paul Graham essay

Startups are very counterintuitive. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's just because knowledge about them hasn't permeated our culture yet. But whatever the reason, starting a startup is a task where you can't always trust your instincts.

It's like skiing in that way. When you first try skiing and you want to slow down, your instinct is to lean back. But if you lean back on skis you fly down the hill out of control. So part of learning to ski is learning to suppress that impulse. Eventually you get new habits, but at first it takes a conscious effort. At first there's a list of things you're trying to remember as you start down the hill.

Startups are as unnatural as skiing, so there's a similar list for startups. Here I'm going to give you the first part of it—the things to remember if you want to prepare yourself to start a startup.