You and your best buds just started a company. Through trial and error you managed to release a version 1.0, and although you have some traction, you’re struggling to succeed in the marketplace. You’re young and this is your first business, so you begin probing your contacts to find an angel to invest in your idea. But you don’t want to find just any angel–doctor and dentist money isn’t what you’re after. What you need is someone with a name brand and connections. Someone who will hold out a hand and pull you onto the platform they stand on. Yep, that’s what it takes to get to the next level!

Hold up a sec. You’re ready to take funding, but you’re more concerned about the connections. So why take the money in the first place? Sure money is good, but investors have a tendency to be pushy, and giving up a large slice of your company is no fun. Now we’re getting somewhere. What you really need is an advisory board: a group of savvy, seasoned business owners who can help you through the tough decisions and plug you into the gravy train, minus the pressure of financial investment.

Here’s where I should probably explain that I don’t consider advisor and mentor to be analagous. By advisor, I mean someone who periodically opens up strategy conversations, using their experience as a guide, and helps you work through problems in exchange for owning a small stake in your company. By mentor, I mean someone who influences your professional growth, with no incentive other than to pass on their knowledge and resolve. Advisors work for you; you work for mentors. Mentors are a very unique phenomena, and I’m saving that for another post.

I hate to burst your bubble, but if you think a strong advisory board is going to solve your problems, you’re just being insecure. Now that’s ok, because starting a business is really really hard, an emotional rollercoaster. All I’m asking is that you take a deep breath and think this through. Here are a few things to consider:

1) Many entrepreneurs are able to build great companies on their first try (probably even the potential advisers you’re drooling over). Yet starting a company isn’t something you can learn in school. Is it possible that you can only learn through experience?

2) The advisers you’re looking for probably have busy schedules, and it’s not likely that you’ll get much of their time anyway. When you do, they’ll probably tell you something that either doesn’t make sense or you won’t want to hear. Since you’re so confident that your idea will work, you probably won’t take their advice.

3) Placing the success of your business in the hands of someone else’s connections probably isn’t a smart idea.

If you’re still on this train of thought, it’s time to start thinking like a marketer. Because people tend to buy for emotional reasons, and because stories can be so captivating, great marketing is primarily about great storytelling. Flipping your problem on its head, all of a sudden you have a fascinating story: the fledgling young company working from the basement, funded by your busted piggy bank and supported only by your mom, who is nice enough to bring down afternoon snacks because you boys just need a break sometimes.

All this considered, which story do you think is an easier sell: well-connected company bound for superstardom, or underdog garage venture morphed into toppling success? If you’re the latter, use that as a strength, not a weakness.

You’re an entrepreneur, a born risk taker. Trust your instincts and let the market validate your idea, not a panel of experts.