Greg Taylor

The people who thrive in startups aren't the ones who never feel the loss. They feel it. They just don't let it stop them. Burn the luggage. Take the lessons. Build something better. That's the whole game.

The skill to develop: Kill what you've built without mourning it. → 6 months on a feature? Customer doesn't want it. Delete it. → Hired your best friend? Not performing. Address it. → Believed in the vision? Market says no. Pivot. No drama. Just forward.

Years ago, my team was flying to close a deal 4 months of prep. Custom demos. Everything riding on it At the gate, ready to board. Flight cancelled One teammate nearly cried. Another screamed at staff I said something that changed how I think about startups forever:

This isn't about faking it. It's about not letting a bad first 7 seconds sabotage the next 30 minutes. Your skills matter. Your experience matters. But none of it gets heard if they've already decided they don't like you. Win the first 7 seconds. Then prove them right.

On video calls: → Camera at eye level → Light in front of you, not behind → Be smiling when they join → Clean background → Look at the camera, not the screen They're judging the thumbnail before the conversation starts.

Princeton researchers found something uncomfortable: People judge your competence, likability, and trustworthiness in under 1 second. From your face alone. Add voice and body language? Full impression in 7 seconds. Here's why this matters:

Month 1-3: Crickets. This is where 90% quit. Month 4-6: Tiny signals. A thank you. A share. Year 1-2: Opportunities start finding you. You're not trying to go viral. You're building a body of work that compounds while you sleep. Build once. Benefit forever.

The quick ship rule: If it's not live within a week, you're overthinking it. Perfect but private = worthless. Imperfect but public = valuable. 10 decent projects beat 1 masterpiece nobody sees.

I created a simple template after stakeholders derailed another project. Posted it on our internal wiki. Forgot about it. Years later, product managers from other companies were still reaching out. One template. Opened doors I didn't know existed.