Like many of you, I have a Computer Science/Engineering degree. Over the years I've become somewhat entrepreneurial and have tried venturing into startups. (I'm still chipping away at it). As I became more and more involved in the startup world, I've come to realize that my education gave me the technical skills I needed but did not adequately prepare me for the real world. What are some of the things you've learned over the years if you could teach or tell your old self that would save you lots of time and agony. I think the HN community here has a wealth of knowledge and experience that could be really helpful to anyone looking to start their own thing.
For me:
1) broadening my horizon in terms of nontechnical skills. I used to just read technical books and dive deep into technology whilst ignoring most other skills such as business, marketing, finance, social etc which is very detrimental.
2) networking and forming new relationships. When you are in school and have a job, your social network tend to be your classmates and your coworkers. I think that if that's all the people you hang out with, you develop this narrow vision of the world and miss a lot of opportunities that may be just around the corner if I had just bothered to venture out of my corner of the world.