# Running Upstairs > Use difficulty as a guide not just in selecting the overall aim of your company, but also at decision points along the way. At Viaweb **one of our rules of thumb was _run upstairs._** Suppose you are a little, nimble guy being chased by a big, fat, bully. You open a door and find yourself in a staircase. Do you go up or down? I say up. The bully can probably run downstairs as fast as you can. Going upstairs his bulk will be more of a disadvantage. Running upstairs is hard for you but even harder for him. > > What this meant in practice was that we deliberately sought hard problems. If there were two features we could add to our software, both equally valuable in proportion to their difficulty, we'd always take the harder one. Not just because it was more valuable, but _because it was harder._ We delighted in forcing bigger, slower competitors to follow us over difficult ground. Like guerillas, startups prefer the difficult terrain of the mountains, where the troops of the central government can't follow. I can remember times when we were just exhausted after wrestling all day with some horrible technical problem. And I'd be delighted, because something that was hard for us would be impossible for our competitors. --- Date: 20221201 Links to: [2023 Learnings](2023%20Learnings.md) Tags: #review References: * [How to Make Wealth](http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html) * pg 101 of hackers and painters