Eight tips for young founders. The advice shifts as careers mature; these address the specific challenges of the early-career founder.

1. Start before you feel ready. Most founders didn't feel qualified when they began. Ready is a state you arrive at by starting.
2. Build in public. Share progress, wins, problems. Builds an audience that will become customers and hires. Specific to the 2020s — an advantage older founders didn't have.
3. Pick mentors who don't need you. The best mentors want nothing from you. Anyone transactional is not a mentor; they're a salesperson.
4. Prioritise learning over titles. The first five years should compound knowledge, not resume lines. Opportunities that teach fast beat ones that pay better.
5. Don't raise too much, too early. More money early creates expectations that kill nascent businesses. Bootstrap what you can; raise what you must.
6. Take care of your health. Founders who burn out at 30 lose 20 years of earning power. Sleep, exercise, and relationships aren't optional.
7. Be patient with wealth. Real wealth is decades of compounding. Founders who chase fast exits often trade that off; the ones who play the long game get both.
8. Accept that it's not linear. Year 1 feels like survival, year 5 feels like grinding, year 10 looks obvious in hindsight. Normal.

Eight tips. Re-read this list once a year for the first five years of your company. The content doesn't change; your understanding of it does.