I believe a founder’s transformation comes from truly aligning knowledge and action—two seemingly contradictory points:

1. What you do matters more than what you think
2. What you don’t do matters more than what you do
Most people stumble at the first level, especially first-time founders. I’ve seen quite a number of founders who have a bunch of ideas and narratives, spending a lot of time every day discussing with friends or investors—only to end up standing still after half a year, with no product built.
The second level is even more challenging, especially once you have a well-formed team and stronger execution. It’s easy to fall into the illusion that you can do everything well, but the traps are actually more than you could imagine. Teams that are truly exceptional, though few, can crawl out of those pits again and again—yet most end up utterly exhausted.
The struggles everyone faces at different stages are different. When I look back at my past self, on the first level I might be close to perfect, but on the second level I’m still nowhere near passing.