Don’t Start Something That "Matters" To Others

Advice When Dealing With The Haters

Advice When Dealing With The Haters

When I was working on my event management app, Schmooz, a lot of people told me in different ways that this might not be the most impactful thing I could be working on. Many people advised me that I wasn’t solving a “big” problem, and even if I do succeed, the impact my product will have on the world will be minimal. When Schmooz failed, I started going around telling people the same thing.

“Start something that matters

Or

“Solve bigger problems”

I started to put down people working on apps where I didn’t see the value. If it wasn’t changing the world, I didn’t want to hear about it.

After 3 years, I finally realized something that might change my outlook on ideas forever. What matters to you is different from what matters to me. If I start a social network for Jewish people who love hiking, you probably won’t care or might think, “does the world need another social network”. But for me, a social network for Jewish hikers would highly impact my life in positive ways. And it would be to thousands of other Jewish hikers too.

To the founders and dreamers out there, don’t listen to advice when people say start something that matters. When they say that, they mean to start something that matters to them. Instead, start something that matters to you! And if some or most people don’t get it, be polite but ignore them and keep going. Just focus on the people that get it. If no one gets it, you probably should start something else. Not because what you’re starting doesn’t matter, but because what you’re starting might ONLY matter to you. That’s called a hobby, not a business.