| > I eventually found my way to joining the founding team of an early stage startup where for the next 6 years I ran around like a headless chicken. Whether due to lack of education, experience, mentorship, or volition, I learned very little about how to systematically build a product and business. I would start by reframing this experience away from something negative and into something positive, and re-examine the assumption that you learned very little. Just because the startup was ultimately not successful does not mean that the experience was not valuable and that you didn't learn anything from it. Often we dismiss or fail to realize our own abilities because they see obvious to us. The reality is that virtually nothing is obvious to everyone, and what might appear to be self-evident to you might be deeply insightful for someone else. I would start by listing out all the ways in which you experienced failure during your startup experience, and for each of these, what you learned from that failure. > I have good intuitive product and design sense, but have very very little in the way of effective skills, such as understanding and facilitating a product development process. Additionally, I have a very small network, if one at all. You've already identified the areas in which you are lacking. Take a course on product design. Your lived experience will give you a much better understanding of the course material than someone without it. Go to events related to industries that interest you in order to expand your network. Reach out to people who are successful in the ways you want to be and ask them for advice. Good luck! |