Someone has already paid the tuition for the mistake you are about to make.

There is a person ten years ahead of you who has run this exact business, raised this exact child, survived this exact department. Most of them will talk generously if you ask properly.

Ask well. Not any advice, which produces platitudes, but what would you do differently in your first two years. Specific questions unlock specific answers. Then write the answer down, because you will not remember it in two years.

And listen to old people. Not because age guarantees wisdom, but because they have watched cycles you have only read about: booms, crashes, marriages, and how each usually ends.