Practicing Communication
Write to yourself - notes and letters about what you want to do. Can be short notes. Share with close friends - they can capture more of what is in your head. Publish to the internet - blogged about a relationship, got lots of feedback. 

Empathy - know your audience. The ultimate aim in business is to sell something. To sell something to someone, you really need to knows their needs. Basic needs don't need a lot of empathy (i.e. bottle water, people need water). For platform business you need context and you need to understand someone's reality. This was hard for me, grew up privileged in Malawi. Going to Kenya and being "nobody" helped me build empathy. Create scenarios in my head - if I was this other person, imagine what their day-to-day like. What is their environment, what is their day like? Find the right words to get the message across to get the sale. If you are right the words will resinate. This plays out in practice, lots of proposal templates. Change a few things to make them personal (i.e. change greeting to be in the local language) - make it feel like it is just for them. Include context that is very unique to them. Interact with them as a person - note names and families. If you are applying empathy well, they are going to feel heard and comfortable. There will be tells - example: they will be speaking more than you. Indicators of not empathizing well -

Perseverance - Thought I'd be Zuckerberg, now know not everyone can be that.
Read failure blogs
Hack your brain - notice the good things, this will give you energy to keep going.
How do you know when to give up - It's a matter of spirit or energy. Knowing that you can't put yourself into it anymore. Sometimes it means you adjust your approach or put it down for a while. I only give up temporality until further notice. Thinks - I'm done with this for now.