1/ One young man approached me recently to ask for advice to start a small manufacturing business in a rural area. He had arranged financing from his family.

I told him I am no one expert in manufacturing (still learning the basics) so talked to him about business in general.

2/ I asked him "First, are you mentally prepared to lose your entire initial investment? Have you prepared your family for that possibility?"

This is not negative thinking. I always ask: "Am I prepared to lose it?"

I actually did lose all my savings in my first attempt!

3/ I told him: "Your challenge in deciding what to make is to find paying customers. As a bootstrapped operation you can't afford to take very long or spend a lot to persuade customers to take a chance on you - massive VC funded companies would be different in this respect."

4/ "To sum up, you have limited pool of money from your family, and you have to figure out how to make something valuable to customers and also persuade them to take a chance on you.

Finally you have to make the operation self-sustainable before your money dries up."

5/ "Adding up all that, pick something very simple to make with an identifiable customer base that already buys such a product. Call a few of them ahead to ask what would make them consider a new supplier like you.

They may also tell you about their existing pain points."

6/ "When a customer tells you about their pain points with existing solutions, it may offer you ways to differentiate your offering. It may also allow you to carve out a market niche consisting of a subset of customers with specific needs not addressed by existing solutions."

7/ "After a period of reflection, analysis, talking to customers - rinse and repeat as necessary - if you make up your mind to take the plunge, do it resolutely. Tell yourself 'I will have no regrets if I fail' and then forge ahead boldly. That's the spirit of the warrior."

8/ "Ultimately it is an inner journey as much as it is an external journey. You will learn as much about yourself as about the world.

You will make mistakes, you may face failure and ridicule, you will have moments of despair, even doom, and you need faith. Religious faith."