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The Best Entrepreneurs NEVER Ask for Feedback

And it’s not because they know they’ve already got everything figured out.

Aaron Dinin, PhD
Entrepreneurship Handbook
4 min read6 days ago

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Image courtesy Ketut Subiyanto via Pexels

I just had a guest speaker in one of my entrepreneurship classes at Duke. At one point, she paused, looked at the students, and asked: “Is this making sense?”

Immediately, the room filled with “thumbs-up” gestures. Every student nodded enthusiastically, signaling that, yes, of course, they totally understood everything.

Except… there was no way that was true.

The guest speaker was explaining some incredibly complex concepts. Even if my students thought they understood, they didn’t. But no one was going to admit it. They weren’t going to risk looking confused in front of their peers. Or they weren’t going to challenge the guest for fear of making her feel awkward. Or they weren’t going to admit they had zoned out ten minutes ago and had no idea what the speaker was talking about anymore.

Instead, they gave my speaker the worst kind of feedback — false affirmation.

It was a real-time example of a lesson I had to learn in entrepreneurship the hard way: asking for feedback rarely gets you the truth. Instead, the best entrepreneurs look for alternate ways of getting meaningful feedback.

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Published in Entrepreneurship Handbook

How to succeed in entrepreneurship; feat. founder stories, design articles, and startup deep dives that inspire your entrepreneurial journey.

Written by Aaron Dinin, PhD

I teach entrepreneurship at Duke. Software Engineer. PhD in English. I write about the mistakes entrepreneurs make since I’ve made plenty. More @ aarondinin.com

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