1. Average means failure

The average business goes bankrupt. The average trader loses money. We tend to confuse the notion of average with that of median, leading us to believe that 50% of people are below average. However most distributions follow a pareto principle, where 20% of a population is responsible for 80% of the output. This means the vast majority of the world around you is actually below average, and an even smaller percentage are good enough to succeed.

Most startups are by definition average. And most startups fail. Doing what everyone else is doing (competitors, partners, users, investors, etc.) carries a strong probability of failure.

2. Easy is hard, hard is easier

Easy or non-original ideas appear to be low-hanging fruit. In fact, it's the opposite. Easy ideas are average which makes them unlikely to succeed (re: point 1). Hard ideas generate enormous amounts of energy around them, and energy is an underrated weapon for a startup.

Note: do not confuse easy and simple. Building reusable rockets is hard, but the core idea is simple.

3. Everything is probabilities

You should think of everything in terms of odds, statistics and probabilities.

Luck, is determined by odds. You can create your own luck by stacking favourable odds on your side or playing them more than once.

4. The truth is not always useful

A belief that is false, but actionable is more valuable than a belief that is true, but not actionable.

Reality is less objective than it seems, much of reality is someone's interpretation of the facts. Choosing to be right and choosing to win are not always the same choice.

The only relevant truths relate to the laws of physics and human nature, which are immutable. Ignoring those will kill your startup, while ignoring other truths may be a competitive advantage.

5. Your company is not a family, it's a team

Building a company with your friends or with people close to you is usually a bad idea. Not because it sours your relationships with friends, but because that team will lack intensity, and intensity is the fuel that powers a startup.

Pick people based on their intensity. Respect will form, and thus trust. From that trust, comradery can emerge, and eventually close friendship.

6. Everything is about people

People are capable of creating incredible amounts of energy and momentum, the kind that your project needs in order to be successful.

Founders are more important than their business. Co-workers are more important than your job.

7. You need to be obsessed

Mono-maniacism is good in startups. If there is no captain Ahab at the helm of your startup, how can you hope to find a mythical whale that nobody before you has found.

If you see something nobody else sees, that alone should keep you up at night. If it doesn't, why should anyone else care?

Note: Ahab got further than anybody else chasing this whale, but he was wrong. He couldn't kill it, he could not defy the laws of nature (immutable truth). You will most likely be wrong, but if you're not obsessed, you'll never even make it far enough to know.

8. Create your voice

Do not regurgitate what your heroes say. Everything you read, and everyone you respect, should be seen as wrong. Either they are average, and thus wrong. Or they are above-average, meaning they were once right. However, times change and what was once true often becomes outdated.