No start-up can find a sustainable business model without occasionally pausing to get directions, and these directions are derived from examining the right metrics.

To gauge whether you’ve made any progress toward your long-term goals, you need to examine the data you’ve gathered along the way.

Unfortunately, many start-ups give in to the temptation of using vanity metrics: flattering but useless or even harmful metrics that make a company look good but don’t help bring it closer to its goals.

Start-ups relying on vanity metrics are effectively looking into the business equivalent of a slimming mirror, which makes it hard to face actual problems and fix them.

For instance, it may be flattering to get a lot of media attention and Facebook fans, but never make the mistake of interpreting these signs as success.

They don’t pay the bills, and you should not waste your energy trying to impact such meaningless metrics.

Other vanity metrics could be the hours of work you’ve already put into a product or the number of milestones you’ve accomplished.

These numbers can (but don’t necessarily) have anything to do with the success of your start-up. Hence, the goal should never be to maximize them.

Even if someone works 100-hour weeks, it’s still possible that those hours are wasted on something that’s useless from the point of view of long-term success.

To be successful, you must find a sustainable business model and grow a base of customers who use your product – and you can do neither if you’re fixated on the wrong metrics.

Vanity metrics are often flattering but misleading – they won’t help you find a sustainable business model.