Don't care what anyone else thinks of you. Get clear on your thoughts around giving a concern about what anyone else thinks. That will create fear in your life and that will keep you small.  

What anyone else thinks has nothing to do with you and everything to do with them.  I mean, if there is someone in your life who has exactly the career path that you want, and you want to go to them for guidance or advice specifically around who to be as this type of a businessperson, that's one thing.  

But to start up a business and go to your friends for thoughts on it and have them all tell you that it's not a good idea, or it stinks, or this, that or the other thing...  

Unless they have what you want, or they have experience in this area, then don't even go to them. I would really just disregard it.

My experience is, always, intellectual property protection. When you have a piece of intellectual property & a protection, that gives you a lot more leverage.  

To negotiate a market share.

That gives you an opportunity to slow down your competition, or to fence out the knock-offs, the copycats, or infringers.  

If there is an opportunity, if there is creativity, try to file legal protection.

Get customers first. If you can find customers, you're going to find investment.  So many times, I talk with start-up founders, and they're like, "If could only get the money, if I could get 10 million dollars, I could build this thing and we could go get our customers."  In every pitch contest that you ever go to, if you ask any judge or anyone that does any judging, "Why did you pick the winner?" It's always "They had an existing customer base. They have already proven it was..."  So if you can go out and take your concept, and get customers around it, people willing to pay money for the idea that you have, you are far more likely to attract investment. You are far more likely to be able to grow your idea. You are far more likely to make it successful.

There are inevitably people who have trod the path that you are on beforehand. And, whereas it may feel like an exciting adventure that you are on alone, there are people who have made mistakes which you don't need to make because they can tell you what they are.   There are people who have had successes that you won't understand until they share them with you. So the role of advisors and mentors and board members, however they have come into your company, it doesn't really matter. What does matter is "take their advice"...

"Done is better than perfect. I think a lot of business owners get in this perfectionist mode, and they hear an outside voice tell them, 'Well, you're not posting, what you're posting isn't good enough, ...' from their families, or their friends, or some guru they see.  

"No. In the beginning days of your business, you've just got to get started. You just have to do something..."

Find where you can bring value, something that you enjoy (because you're going to have to do a lot of things that you don't enjoy), find where you're strengths are, and something that's monetizable.  Get all them together, and find what's in the middle. There'll be something in there for you that you can do, that will bring value to the world, will get you paid, that'll be something you'll enjoy, and something that you are good at. In that nexus point, that's what you want to do.