Focus on the core of your product or service, stay lean, and make decisions fast.

You will always have limited resources. You may want to get to perfection with your product or service because that’s what feels right. However, it’s not what’s best. It’s better to do only the truly necessary things and then launch fast. It’s better to stay lean with your tools and use only what you really need. It’s better to focus on making a great core product instead of adding 10 additional features.

1. Define the epicenter of your business.
   There are a lot of things that you could do and want to do; however, all these things can be distractions from what’s really important—the core of your business.

2. When planning new things, ignore all the details.
   Each detail will distract you from designing your core business. One method to do this is to use a thin Sharpie marker instead of a pen. You can’t write too many details with a Sharpie.

3. Don’t stack up problems assuming you will resolve them later. Instead, make decisions as they come up.
   When you make decision after decision, you boost morale and you make progress.

4. Be the curator.
   Keep your product clean and great. Provide the best value you can. Quality is the most important.

5. Less is more.
   Having a restaurant with 10 perfect dishes on the menu is much better than having 30+ mediocre dishes.

6. Build the core of your business on something that won’t change.
   If you’re hunting for the next big thing, you’re focused on fashion. If you want to build a company that will last 10+ years, focus on things that won’t change.

7. Be obsessed with getting customers and making money, instead of tools, software tricks, fancy office space, and other things that you don’t really need.
   Use whatever you’ve already got or can afford cheaply.

8. Launch sooner rather than later.
   When you feel that your product is finished, it was most likely already finished a few weeks ago. You don’t need to have perfected all the details to launch a product. It can actually be better for you to launch before it’s perfect, as you will get feedback from your first users much earlier.