6 Pieces of Advice Entrepreneurs Wish They Could Tell Their Former Selves

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Today's Question: What's one thing you wish you had known before setting off on your entrepreneurial path?

The answers below are provided by members of FounderSociety, an invitation-only organization comprised of ambitious startup founders and business owners.

1. Get as Much PR as Possible

I wish I had known how important public relations was when I started my company. I thought traditional sales and marketing was the answer for scaling my company. We learned the hard way, and now that we know how important PR is, we have been going full force with a robust PR campaign the past year and a half. It has definitely paid off more than we ever imagined it would.

— Ben Walker, Transcription Outsourcing, LLC

2. Smart Work Is Better Than Hard Work

Don't try to take on the world right when you're first starting out. It can be tempting to try to accomplish every single task in sight, but that's a guaranteed path to burnout. Work smart and have a realistic idea of what you can accomplish on your own.

— Steven Buchwald, The E2 Visa Lawyer

3. Mistakes Are Just Learning Opportunities

The best part about being an entrepreneur is the fact that you can gain so much knowledge from mistakes. Experience always beats advice, through and through.

— Ajmal Saleem, Suprex Learning

4. Define What Success Looks Like

I wish I had a process for figuring out what success looked like not just six months or one year down the road, but two and three years down the road. Having a tech startup means diligent iteration and moving quickly. While the overall vision remains the same, the short-term goals to get there should be defined and redefined more often.

— Arry Yu, GiftStarter.com

5. Enjoy the Journey

We may as well enjoy the journey with a smile, no matter what adventure we embark on in life. Have faith and be confident. Many business owners are overachievers, myself included. If we wanted mediocrity in a comfort zone, we wouldn't be doing what we're doing. The learning curve never ends if you're growing.

— Angela Delmedico, Elev8 Consulting Group

6. Free Advice Is Expensive

I wish I would have chosen whose advice to take more carefully. I learned the hard way to only take advice from people skilled in that area.

— Bryan Driscoll, Think Big Marketing, LLC