Just figure it out

The one skill that matters most in startups

The more I experience and learn in the startup world, the more I realize that there is one skill that trumps everything else: the ability to figure things out.

Startups and young businesses operate under extreme uncertainty. Because of that, there is no single hard skill that guarantees success. Neither programming, marketing, sales, hiring, nor operations will get you there on their own. Too many unexpected things happen along the way for any one skill to be sufficient.

What truly sets people apart is the ability to face new challenges with no clear solution and still move forward. You do not have all the answers. You do not have all the skills. You act anyway, make decisions under uncertainty, adapt quickly, and figure things out as you go.

This skill matters most at the very beginning. It’s what allows people to start despite not feeling ready. If you trust yourself to figure things out as they come, starting becomes much easier. You build it by repeatedly stepping into unfamiliar situations and realizing, in hindsight, that you managed to handle them. Each exposure becomes proof that you can operate without a clear map.

Step by step

What’s interesting is that the process of figuring things out is usually not that complex. In practice, you can rely on the same basic toolkit for almost any challenge:

1. Map the problem. Write down what you know and what you don’t. Bring structure into the chaos.

2. Identify what matters. Separate signal from noise and focus on what actually moves things forward.

3. Find help. Look for people, communities, or resources. Someone has solved something similar before.

4. Take action. Even with uncertainty. Most problems don’t get easier by waiting.

Equipped with this, you are ready to take on almost anything. Not because nothing will go wrong, but because you trust yourself to figure it out.

You have done this before

In small, this is exactly what likely happened during your first internship. You had no idea what was going on. You still got tasks. You tried to understand them, googled things, did your best, delivered a mediocre result, asked a colleague or another intern for help, tried again, and did better.

The same pattern applies to registering a company, building a website, launching a product, selling your first customer, starting a newsletter, or hiring your first employee.

And that’s the liberating part. You can’t perfectly learn all of this before starting. You have to throw yourself into it and trust yourself to figure things out along the way.
If that’s true, the real question becomes: what’s actually stopping you from starting?

That was your cheatcode for this week. Now it’s up to you.

Here you can find the previous issues.

PS: Did you find today’s newsletter helpful? Then feel free to share the cheat code with a few people who might benefit from it as well.

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