In August 2019, I saw a post by Ray Newal from Techstars that really resonated.

“One of the biggest threats to founders today is false positive signaling. It’s easy to mistake the popularity of posts on social media, or the receipt of unknown or unanticipated awards as signs of success. Be very clear, the only true indicator of success for a business is profit, and growth. Anything else is noise.”

It was a quote worth reading more than once. When the message sank in, it captured what I believed entrepreneurs needed to hear in 2019.

That same day, an entrepreneur shared a LinkedIn post urging founders that the only way they could be successful is if they were very active on Twitter and Social Media. With one message that irked me the most, “Build your personal brand, before your product.”

To some that know me as a successful entrepreneur, I hope this advice means something.

I wholeheartedly disagree with this philosophy and if you follow this, sadly your career as an entrepreneur will be short lived. A personal brand doesn’t pay your bills, a real product does. The most successful businesses I knew were not built on noise. They were built with hard work, substance, and sacrifice. Not through mindless social media chatter.

It baffles me that people are enamored with noise, this “false positive dopamine high” – that most people forget their own signal to just focus and execute.

I would love to see how sitting behind a computer typing mindlessly away to people you don’t even know – helps generate customers, investors all while building an amazing product?

Substance is everything. Social Validation means nothing.

The need for notoriety had become the new “promised land” as people rush to be known for something before they are even successful at anything. Rush for validation from peers, validation from friends and even validation from the press. For some reason, acceptance and accolades are now taken very seriously by people. But, I assure you this is not the way entrepreneurship works.

During the year before this article, my team at RedLotus had worked on intellectual property, filed patent applications, and received patents while trying to build something truly great. At the time, our website did not reveal what we were building, and we had pursued no press mentions. It could look like another me-too “advertising company.” Believe me, I designed it that way. The only form of validation I seek is from my customers. Please read that again. The only validation you need is from your customers.

Businesses are made only by hustle. Don’t ever confuse hustle with standing behind a keyboard hashtagging away. Substance always wins.

So, the next time you go, “Oh my god this founder “liked my tweet”, oh my god this “VC” retweeted me. Oh my god “all my friends liked my post.”

Let me be the first one to give you the cold hearted truth.

Likes, tweets, and retweets don’t build businesses.

In reality, nobody really gives a shit.

Stay quiet. Keep building.