After famously being fired from his first company at 22, Adam D’Angelo founded his own e-commerce platform in 2003. This wasn’t just any old business endeavour for him, though – it was an opportunity to create something that would help thousands and change lives worldwide, which he called Taobao Market or Tmall for short!
A few years later after making billions with this online retail marketplace — what is now known around China as “the Walmart/EBAY combination”) — Mr D’Angelo realised success had many faces. Still, its true value came not only when there are dollar signs behind your eyes…but so much more precious are those moments spent with family that cannot be bought with riches.
So, he went home to spend more time with his dad and mom before they were gone from this world. But it wasn’t long before they were calling him back to the trenches of capitalism! He had a venture in Palo Alto at a startup called “Quora”, a social Q&A site for subject matter experts to post questions, etc. The rest, as they say, is history.
So, the following are life-changing lessons from Adam D’Angelo to make you successful in your own life.
1. Know When It’s Time To Call It Quits
Every entrepreneur dreams of a billion-dollar idea one day. And for the majority of them, that dream remains just that—a dream. The harsh reality is that many startups will fail in their infancy stage before getting off the ground.
This isn’t always because they are bad ideas; organisations often lack the necessary capital to get fully fledged. And when the money runs dry, it’s time for founders to call it a day and move on to different ideas.
This is an especially tough pill to swallow in a startup culture where everyone—from co-founders to employees—is going into everything with the attitude that they will change the world and become billionaires. Of course, they don’t want to go home at the end of the day and tell their spouse and kids that they lost everything, but that is just a reality founders must face when it comes to startups.
But there is a silver lining—for venture capitalists, it means that more money gets funnelled into promising new ideas, and for founders, it means they get to move onto something completely different with a clean slate.
2. Take Time For Yourself
When you start a company, your whole life becomes that startup. You can quickly lose yourself in it and forget about having any personal time at all. As a result, your relationships become secondary to the company’s success, and building personal connections with people all but disappear.
The problem is that you need to have a personal life to be an effective leader. You can’t just run on fumes because it will catch up with you eventually. This is why Adam D’Angelo decided to leave the company he co-founded, Quora—he needed time to re-centre and find himself again.
He needed to take time out of his work schedule and spend it with his family—something he hadn’t done in a long while. And when you do this, you will feel committed to your company twice as much because you actually have a life outside of it.
3. Don’t Underestimate The Value of Family
When Adam D’Angelo decided to leave Quora, it wasn’t because he didn’t care about the company anymore. On the contrary—he cared so much about it that he had lost sight of his family and himself.
But after spending time with them, he realised just how important they were. He had to get that time back, and it meant leaving the company he co-founded halfway through. D’Angelo knew he wouldn’t be able to lead Quora effectively unless his family came first—and you need to realise this about your own life too.
A business is a marathon, not a sprint. You really can’t do anything by yourself, which means that your business will only be as good as those around you—the people on your team. And the only way to get those people on board with your vision is to create a healthy work-life balance where everyone knows exactly what they are working towards.
4. Know When To Let Go Of The Past
Adam D’Angelo learned the hard way that you need to let go of the past in order to move forward with your future. You can’t be locked into a mindset where your company is always perfect, no matter how much success it has achieved in the past. Because if you are, then that mindset will prevent it from experiencing success in the future too.
And you need to be willing to let go of the past—even if that means letting go of something you built with your own hands. D’Angelo realised this when he co-founded Quora with Charlie Cheever, but it wasn’t until he left the company that he understood why they decided to leave him.
They knew D’Angelo needed to make some changes in his life—and those changes meant letting go of Quora. This is something every founder will have to do at one time or another if they want their company to grow.
5. No idea is terrible just because many people think it is.
When it comes to running a business, there is no such thing as an idea that is too crazy. However, you should never dismiss an idea completely because you don’t think it will work—that is how you find your biggest successes.
You need to be willing to take risks to make your company work, even if they are ridiculous ones. Adam D’Angelo learned this when he started Quora, and it is something every founder needs to learn too if they want their business to thrive.
No idea is terrible just because many people think it is. And if you are the person with that crazy idea, then your job becomes convincing everyone else that it’s not so crazy after all.
6. Don’t Push Your Personal Issues Onto Others
Adam D’Angelo had a lot of personal issues when he co-founded Quora, and he wanted to keep these problems to himself. The problem was that his teammates could tell something was bothering him—they just couldn’t figure out what it was.
And when you allow personal issues to grow and fester like this, just know that they will eventually rear their ugly heads in other aspects of your life—whether it’s at work or with your family. D’Angelo realised this about his own life when he stepped down from Quora, and you should too if you want to be successful.
You need to make sure you take care of yourself before trying to help everyone else around you—because this is one lesson that Adam D’Angelo needed to learn the hard way.
7. You Don’t Have To Be The Best At Everything
Adam D’Angelo may have been a coding prodigy when he was younger, but that doesn’t mean he would be successful when it came to running a company. The truth is, D’Angelo had never managed the type of people Quora required him to manage—and everyone knew this about him.
And yet, they still kept working with him because they knew he had the right vision for their company. When you are trying to create something new and innovative, there is no such thing as someone who can do it all by themselves.
You need a team if you want your vision to see the light of day, which means knowing when you don’t have the skills to tackle a problem. If you try to solve that problem by yourself, then you will ultimately end up destroying your company in the process.
8. There Will Never Be A Perfect Time To Start Something New
Adam D’Angelo knew he needed a break from Quora—but he kept putting off taking one because he didn’t think there was ever a right time to do it. And this is something every founder needs to understand if they want their business to succeed: There will never be a perfect time to start something new.
When you are creating something new, there will always be problems that need solving and questions that need answering—and there won’t always be enough time in the day to get them done. This is why you need to be proactive when making sure your company can run smoothly.
You can’t put it off for a later date because there will always be more things that need doing and deadlines that keep getting pushed back. If you want your company to grow, then you have to start now.
9. Take Breaks. Take Care Of Yourself.
Adam D’Angelo was so passionate about Quora when he co-founded the company, but this type of passion can only last for so long. Eventually, you will get tired and burned out—and that is what happened to D’Angelo at one point in his life after years of working on the company.
And if you don’t make time for yourself and your well-being, then you will end up burning out even faster than D’Angelo did—and that is going to destroy everything you have worked so hard to build with your own two hands.
You need to take a break from work every now and then, whether it’s to see your friends and family or just to unwind for a few hours. But, if you don’t take care of yourself, then you won’t be able to help anyone else—and that is something Adam D’Angelo has learned about his own life after running Quora for years.