If you follow some startup communities or have a social circle which has many entrepreneurs almost every day you will be exposed to new and fresh products or services or apps that beg for your feedback and support. It could approach you directly or could be as simple as a Facebook post or tweet introducing a new “idea” and asking for feedback.
Now it is not possible that you are positive about absolutely everything. Yes you can find positive things about the product/idea but that everything that you will come across will be good reflects poorly on your choices/thinking more than it does on the ideas that you see every day. Even then most of us do not share the negative feedback. Even if you feel that the idea is “stupid” (I know it is a harsh term but I will be lying if I say that this has never come in my mind when seeing a new startup) you will most likely not say it for the fear of being labeled a closed-minded pessimistic naysayer. Even when you can clearly see the poor build quality, extremely bad choice of technology and design and even platform, not a word is said to the fellow entrepreneur other than congratulating him and wishing him luck.
It happens every day when I see such posts where fellow entrepreneurs, even the seasoned kind, will praise the lefts and rights of the product or if nothing the entrepreneurial spirit of the person completely neglecting the elephant sized problem that they identified within the first 5 seconds of seeing the product. Is the fear of being called a negative guy that big that you do not point out that appalling font that the developer entrepreneur has used?
I have taken a lot of flak a lot of times for giving the most direct and cruel feedback without any sugar-coating or even a single word of praise. Most of the new entrepreneurs thank me but it is easy to figure out which ones are pissed with my lone critical comment in the deluge of praises and good wishes. And yet I continue to do so. For I know that by not doing this I will be doing a disservice to my fellow friend who will never even know what he did wrong. If I give him validation just because he seeks it and I don’t want to “sound rude” would mean robbing him of the opportunity of improving himself.
But most importantly I do this because I want this done to me. I like to claim that I am where I am because I made mistakes and then took lessons from those mistakes. The process of finding these areas of improvement becomes even more efficient if you point out my mistakes as soon as you see them.
Trust me; it is much better and valuable than the pat on the back.
asha chaudhry
akhil – i love this trait about you. you just put it out there. you don’t mince your words. and though i’ve met you briefly i’ve had the pleasure of watching you make a presentation. i know for a fact that you are one genuine person who feels strongly about things and has to write about them! that is one aspect i respect you for.
akhil – i implore you to be the one (apart from alok and a few others) to tell fellow rodinhooders what is “crap” about their ideas. someone needs to point out flaws. pls take out time when you can and be the one to give some constructive criticism to our youngsters who need to hear stuff in black & white so that they don’t waste time and can improve on things they aren’t doing right…
thank you for this post!
Darshan Bhambiru
Whoa!! Where were you for so long ???
Glad to see someone who shares my own 3D version of Analysis (I got an Eagles Eye for these – Catching the Mistakes and pointing them) before laying it down on Flat Ground!! 🙂 Am a Natural at it now 😛
What is GOOD would always remain so, since that is what we all try to achieve at all times, it is the things which need to be Improved so it gets BETTER, so the BEST can be Arrived at. m/
Not sure now how many really do read all my Comments and take it in the Exact sense you mentioned above!!
Thanks this was needed I guess, long time Due! Cheers!!!
Akhil Gupta
Asha, You are far too kind. I realized long back that it is important for an entrepreneur to keep aside his ego and listen to feedback. And if the fellow entrepreneur is willing to listen to us it becomes our responsibility to be honest.
Akhil Gupta
Not sure about others but i do read your comments. Here as well as on Facebook. I like people who are good with words and you my friend are a genius that ways.
Darshan Bhambiru
🙂 Add me on both then !!
Chinmoy Mishra
That’s a good point Akhil, but, I would say that’s only one side of the picture. The problem is that there are far too many people these days who call themselves experts and shoot down ideas/ventures if it does not fit with their myopic view of how things should work. So, should an entrepreneur take that as the last word and and move on to something else? One can point out a mistake with something, provided there is a one size fits all rule. I guess with every venture and every entrepreneur, there are peculiarities and idiosyncrasies best known to the entrepreneur. So, while I agree that feedback should be as brutal as possible, i would say, for us to take that seriously, we should be very aware of where it is coming from and whether that person really understand the whole picture.