6 Founders Share the Goal-Setting Traps That Sabotaged Their Success (and What They Focus on Now) Some benchmarks are more important than others—so what should you really care about? We asked six founders for their hardest-won lessons.

1. Followers ≠ buyers

"I initially thought we should hit a certain number of social media followers. That did bring visibility, but we learned that high follower numbers without corresponding engagement didn't translate to actual business success. On the other hand, one genuinely helpful benchmark I've set was achieving a consistent customer satisfaction rate. This metric was crucial because it directly reflected the quality of our products and the effectiveness of our customer service." — Keren Yoshua, founder, Artizan Joyeria

2. Pitch counts ≠ funding