As a founder, you will hear a lot about the difficult choices you have to make; how each crossroad will require soul-searching for the right step forward. Most of those stories are true. But it’s not all bad – as you go about building stuff, some choices are going to be no-brainers!

These questions are different for each of us. It depends on your unique blend of talent, conviction and constitution. Some folks will find it easy to select the first channel of distribution or the first feature or the first investor or whatever else. However easy you may have found the choice, you may be surprised by the consequences.

These seemingly easy choices tend to have a high degree of cognitive biases and may leave you unprepared for the results. It may have been an easy decision to take that first cheque from an unknown investor, but you will have to deal with this person for a very long time. That feature you thought was super important may turn out to be a timesucking lemon.

Some choices you are prepared for and for some you need to do more work. Never underestimate the impact of these easy choices, the value of due diligence and the power of hard work.

When you are building for a global audience, everything seems to move at light speed. Your users are online 24/7 and so is your competition. Nobody cares about ‘business hours’ anymore. All that matters is Happiness. You can leave no stone unturned, no feature half-baked and no tweet unreplied to in the pursuit of their happiness.

To build a great experience for users who drop apps at light speed, you need to move at light speed yourself. Everything you do is crucial and everything you miss is fatal. This is a gross oversimplification of the harsh realities of a contemporary technology startup, but it doesn’t belie the truth. Once successful companies can look like also-rans in the matter of only a few quarters, lest they keep up with the always-on crowd. Apps that defined your mornings can feel sluggish and not-real-timey-enough if they don’t push out updates regularly.

Working at these speeds requires discipline and drive. Insane drive. Almost maniacal obsession to be on top of every single point of contact, every single click, every single request. Drop the ball and your users pass you by.

Vroom vroom.

As you start out creating something out of nothing, it quickly becomes clear that you need to learn things you hadn’t planned on learning. The most valuable thing that you learn is the art of saying No.

If you are leading the process, you need to identify holes in the idea, process and people that might detract you from your ultimate goal. Counter to popular belief, this doesn’t always become easier with experience. With each new idea come new people, new processes and new hurdles for a new goal. What remains constant is to be able to say no to bad ideas which could quickly balloon to take up your precious time.

Each time you add a new feature, you make another promise to your customer. Before you do that, check if you have done all you can to keep the promises you have already made. Focus on your existing promises and say no to the rest.

Den Haag, Netherlands

You know its real when your
Latest nights are your greatest nights
The sun is up when you get home, that’s just a way of life
Apartment 1503: some couches and paintings
When you record with 2 others that want the same things
It start to feel better than home feels
And so you up there every night, you swear you getting close.

Hip Hop Album of The Year – Take Care by Drake.

 Image Credit - Wired

This was taken at BITS Pilani, Rajasthan (India).

This was taken in Bhiwani, Haryana (India) on an iPhone 4. Edited using the awesome Camera+ App.

Turn up the lights in here baby
Extra bright, I want y’all to see this
Turn up the lights in here, baby
You know what I need
Want you to see everything
Want you to see all of the lights

If you want it you can get it for the rest of your life

Something wrong
I hold my head
MJ gone…our nigga dead!
I slapped my girl, she called the feds
I did that time and spent that bread
I’m heading home, I’m almost there
I’m on my way, heading up the stairs
To my surprise, a nigga replacing me
I had to take ‘em to that ghetto university

Restraining order
Can’t see my daughter
Her mother, brother, grandmother hate me in that order
Public visitation
We met at Borders
Told her she take me back
I’ll be more supportive
I made mistakes
I bump my head
Courts suck me dry
I spent that bread
She need a daddy
Baby please, can’t let her grow up in that ghetto university

Unemployment line, credit card declined
Did I not mention I was about to lose my mind?
(my mind, my mind, my mind)
And also was about to do that line
Okay, okay, you know we going all the way this time
(this time, this time, this time)
We going all the way this time

I tried to tell you but all I could say is ohhhh

This song has an eclectic mix of vocals for a hip-hop track, featuring – Rihanna, Kid Cudi, Tony Williams, The-Dream, Charlie Wilson, John Legend, Elly Jackson (of La Roux), Alicia Keys, Elton John, Fergie, Ryan Leslie, Drake, Alvin Fields, and Ken Lewis. Phew!

Its also the only hip-hop video I know of which features a discretionary warning that the video “potentially triggers seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy”. Only Hype Williams can come up with something this crazy (read: original)!