This post is from September 15, 2010 and originally appeared in an earlier, now-defunct blog that I had called Seitzian Rudisms.  I’m reposting it now for a friend from Venture Cafe who asked me about my experiences with Bill Warner’s startup methodology.  It’s been two years since I attended Bill’s AnythingGoes seminar and I think it’s time for a follow-up post about what’s happened since then; I’ll link to that here when it’s written.

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Some entrepreneurs just want to focus on doing stuff. The question why – what’s my intention? – doesn’t matter so much as achieving a tangible result: launching a product, winning customers, making money, and so on.

For other entrepreneurs, why is really important.

In the entrepreneurial world, there’s lots of advice to be had. Everyone wants to give you advice – mentors, peers, business school professors, even competitors.

Most of the structured advice available to entrepreneurs – what you get in formal mentorship programs, seminars, workshops – focuses on execution. How to get stuff done. How to write a business plan. How to do a deal. How to raise money. How promote your product.

There are fewer organized, public opportunities for entrepreneurs to consider what really makes us tick – why we’re taking these huge risks, what we’re really aiming for. Bill Warner’s AnythingGoes program, which I attended for two weeks in July 2010, was one such opportunity I had, and I’m grateful for it.

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