Persistence and pivoting are both skills
Founders hear conflicting advice all the time.
“Stay focused. Don’t pivot. Push through.” And in the next breath: “Be agile. Listen to the data. Don’t be afraid to change.”
Both pieces of advice are right, in different situations. The skill isn’t in choosing a side. It’s in knowing which situation you’re actually in.
Some periods of doubt are the normal grind of building something hard. Pushing through is exactly right. Other periods are the world telling you something fundamental needs to change. Pushing through them just costs you more time.
This topic is about telling the two apart.
The two main mistakes
Founders make two opposite mistakes when it comes to changing direction.
The first is changing too often. Every time something is hard or unclea...
