# Lessons learned (2021 edition) A few weeks back, I started looking back and began making plans for the coming years. LINK: [[DeveloPassion's Newsletter 036 - Looking left and right]] This week while I was finishing this exercise, I’ve tried to summarize the key lessons I’ve learned in 2021. Here they are, in no particular order: - The best way to recover after a failure is to start something new (after a small break) - Don’t pour all your energy into a single thing to the detriment of your whole life. Work is a single dimension; life has many more that deserve your time and attention - It’s easier to lose momentum and energy than to gain it back. Keep going! - Finding the right co-founders is a HARD problem - Co-founders may be a perfect match on paper, but fail to work as a team - Co-founder alignment is multidimensional - Co-founders may be complementary, but too “distant” from each other - Co-founders might be aligned (vision-wise), but fail to steer in the right direction - The ego of some co-founders might be blinding - Co-founders (short and long term) personal goals might not be aligned, and cause friction - Trust your guts; they know faster, and better than your conscious mind. If something feels off, then something is definitely off! - Previous titles of co-founders don’t mean anything. Each founding team is different and each business is different - Words are but words - Unexpressed conflicts are actual conflicts and will come to bite you if you don’t resolve them - Be wary of empty promises. Some people will say anything to get what they want out of you - Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. People are not always what they seem - People who ghost you once they are done with you are not worth your time and energy. Get them out of your life asap - Entrepreneurship is NOT without risks, no matter what people may say. It all depends on one’s personal situation. If you have kids and a mortgage to repay, entrepreneurship IS risky - Working half-time and using the other half to explore entrepreneurship is super rewarding, and actually not too risky - Products don’t necessarily require code - [[Small and riskless bets]] are great. Start small! - Raising prices as a freelancer can backslash, but it shouldn’t stop you from doing it, as a statement both for others and yourself - Creating and growing a community is FUN - Starting with community is starting to succeed - Having a baby at 38 is MUCH HARDER than at 28 (seriously 😂) - The smile of a baby is worth a million unicorns (probably more!) - The world needs more social progress for fathers! 12 days is definitely not enough. Taking 3 months off was definitely worth it