From experience, I would say #1 is to take a nice, long, no-emails vacation. Because once you start, you ain't gonna have one until you are done.

Read: 5 Things I recommend you doing before founding a startup. People need to stop using the superlative, the English language provides nuances like could, should, would etc.

6. Fail in some catastrophic ways. It's the best way to shed your fear of the unknown.

Ok list, I agree with the last, finding some sort of vent is crucial. I'd add to that though: Experience a couple of near-catastrophic events while you build it (and ideally before you've got too much momentum). The things that destabilise tend to be looked back on as just-what-was-needed once you've dealt with it - and if you don't deal with it and all falls apart, then it was probably still just-what-was-needed..

The point about dumb questions feels cliche to me. I ask my advisors (what I think are) smart questions that sometimes turn out to be dumb. Project yourself as an intelligent, confident person if you want to be judged as such (you do) and remember that your advisors are really busy too so don't waste their time!

To borrow a chan phrase: this post gave me cancer.

Seriously, this blogspam is what passes for HN frontpage nowadays?

* Work at a Startup * Network with entrepreneurs to learn their ways