Despite all negative aspects of lying, people still choose to disguise the truth in

order to try to fool others and, in particular, themselves.

I can make the next Google, I wish I had enough Money “

Sure, cash is important, but to help you grow, not to help you get started.

You don’t need cash for the first prototype, you don’t need cash to make something work.

Cash can help you expand, it cannot help you innovate, work harder and find out what customers want.

I have this great Idea, Now I need to hire a team of developers. “

You may not be a very technical person, which leaves you with two options: either you get technical or you find a technical partner with whom to share profit and loss.

Look at it this way: if you know nothing about technology, who can you manage a team of people you hire?

And respectively: if you can’t convince at least one developer to devote his effort to you idea, how are you going to go after users / customers.

Success = Planning, lack of Success is due to lack of Planning. “

This is a half-lie: planning, to some extent in necessary.

However, when you’re starting up, doing is more important than planning.

Your team probably has under 5 members, so human resource is scarce.

Don’t waste it by writing plans and documents which bring little or no value to the actual customers.

More often then not: lack of success is due to lack of action.

Well the product is not ready so far. “ Again, it’s a half-lie. Yes, your product isn’t ready for the real

world. But if you keep it behind closed doors, it will

never be ready, because it will never be exposed to the harsh eye of the market

and you’ll never get the feedback which will help you improve.

How about a viral campaign, we shall make one? A successful “Viral Campaign”. “

Look, viral is just a word, not some checkbox you can tick.

You can make something go viral by either having a lot of experience and resources or by getting really really lucky.

To me, saying you’ll make your startup / product / campaign go viral is like saying your business plan is winning the lottery.

(I also really like people who stay awake at night to build brands for something that has no customers, no prototype and it’s basically just an idea.)

By my excel calculations we shall capture 5% of the WWW space. I’m excited. “

Now, this is the sort of lie which can make you look either delusional or stupid.

Rather focus on the real feedback you got from your first ten users (even if two of them are your parents and five of them are your friends).

It’s not a lot, but at least it’s honest. You’re too small to think about even 5% of a big market.

And remember: there are only two things which can go from zero to over a billion in less than two years: cancer and Groupon.

Why on earth you want to focus on Niche Market. The Whole World will use Us. “

If you invented soap 200 years ago, that might have been accurate, although I have serious doubts.

Saying anyone can use something points out you have no idea what you’re talking about.

Bite your tongue, do your research, ask for user/customer feedback and come up with an answer closer to “small and medium businesses, employing up to 50 knowledge workers, in fields like technology, sales, marketing, analytics, human resources and recruiting ”.

Will participate into XYZ Conference / Seminar , Our valuations will peak up. “ Yes, social events are essential for expanding

your social network, talking about your product, getting opinions and maybe getting some people interested.

Just don’t imagine that after walking in people will start throwing money at you.

Also, don’t expect that by attending some obscure coaching session which charges 200EUR you’ll become enlightened.

Sure, ask yourself in all honestly “Do I really expect to learn something new that will make me 200EUR or more?”

Usually the answer is NO.

I have this Fucking amazing book. Let me Read this, see you guys in office tom. “ Oh come on, there’s virtually a handful of

successful entrepreneurs, but millions of … well… people who buy self-help books.

How do you explain the staggering difference ?

Starting up a company is about making combinations of decisions that is unlikely to have even occurred before, ever.

Much less is it likely to have been written about. My personal opinion (and a harsh 1) is that if you expect to get the answers to starting up from a book, any book … save yourself the trouble and get a job.

No No No, I won’t share my Idea, What if you Steal and become the next Facebook? “

I think this is my favorite, because it’s so hilarious. Most ideas aren’t worth the paper they are

scribbled on. Businesses are not ideas, they are the processes

made to make that idea have a real life representation.

Even if you steal the idea, you’d still need to put into it a lot of work, sweat, tears, inspiration, desperation, money and confidence before it blips.

Bottom line, anyone who is allegedly afraid to share what he’s working on either suffers from delusions of grandeur or is afraid that everyone will think his idea is shit.

Nevertheless, the question that we must ask ourselves is not how much worse things can

get. If we look upwards instead of fearing demotion, we soon realize that, through

lying, we restrain ourselves to living in little corners. Fear of virus and bacteria should not

prevent us from opening the window and breathing fresh air.

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abhishek.shah@live.com