StartUp Founders: To Build A Great Company You Have To Be Able To Listen & Understand

As a startup founder, one of the things that just comes from just doing it again and again is learning at the end of a sentence or a position you make to stop, including if need be, an awkward dramatic pause and let the other person reply. You have to not only listen to them, you have to hear them. Too many startup founders, too many people perhaps while people are replying to them, they're thinking of what they're going to say back. And actually you can't do that. You have to stop. You have to truly listen. And if you are truly listening, you'll probably ask a follow up question and that follow up question will probably give you more insight into the foundational assumptions, beliefs and the why they made that statement. This is not the same as the five whys to a root cause analysis or five whys to a cry. It's more of a quote I heard that I've always loved is a wise man once said, nothing at all. But the key for you as a founder is understanding kind of the root foundational reasoning. People are making a position or a statement and giving them the chance to actually articulate and make that. So make your position pause, ask a question.