Before hiring for a critical function, founders should do the job themselves, even if they aren't experts. The goal isn't mastery, but to deeply understand the role's challenges. This experience is crucial for setting a high hiring bar and being able to accurately assess if a candidate will truly up-level the team.

A founder is never truly without a boss. If not shareholders or a board, the customers ultimately dictate the company's direction and success. This mindset ensures a customer-centric approach regardless of ownership structure, keeping the business grounded and responsive to market needs.

Lacking deep category knowledge fosters the naivety and ambition required for groundbreaking startups. This "beginner's mind" avoids preconceived limitations and allows for truly novel approaches, unlike the incrementalism that experience can sometimes breed. It is a gift, not a curse.

Instead of chasing trends or pivoting every few weeks, founders should focus on a singular mission that stems from their unique expertise and conviction. This approach builds durable, meaningful companies rather than simply chasing valuations.

Jason Fried advises founders facing inflection points to trust their own instincts rather than seeking external playbooks. An outsider can't replicate the founder's deep, irreplaceable knowledge of their business's history and decisions. The only path forward is to continue "making it up" based on that unique context.

Founders often start with strong intuition but lose it after achieving success. This occurs because long-held societal conditioning, which teaches individuals to distrust themselves and outsource authority to experts, resurfaces and mutes their inner voice.