It’s no secret that I love startups. There are general qualities about a startup that make it distinct from any other organization. It’s important to understand these qualities in order to survive – much less thrive at – a startup. Take a look at what follows and see if you have the personal and professional traits that can withstand the startup environment. If you have it, ask yourself “how.” If you don’t have it, ask yourself “why.”
Startups are early.
Size has little to do with it. A startup can be large, small, or tiny. The size of the startup is an outcome of its business model and stage in life. Fact is, even a late stage startup is early. That’s why it’s called late stage STARTup in the first place. As with parties, being early means you’re often the only one in the room. It gets lonely.
Professional trait required: Passion.
Personal trait required: Optimism.
Startups are frugal – sometimes even downright stingy.
You’ve heard of the penny wise, pound foolish organizations. Startups are just penny wise, penny foolish. They have no “pound” with which to be foolish. In this environment, every small decision has potentially big consequences. Further, every small decision must lead to outsized outcomes. To do really big things, you can’t fear failure or play it too safe.
Professional trait required: Risk-taking.
Personal trait required: Boldness.
Startups experience a lot of losses.
It’s not just the bumps and bruises. You’ll actually go through weeks and months of feeling knocked out. You have to continue plowing away even harder as the mounting evidence suggests that you’re on a horrendous losing streak.
Professional trait required: Purposefulness.
Personal trait required: Perseverance.
Startups get easily distracted.
All organizations get distracted. But, I like to think of how a series of waves impacts a large ship versus a small boat. The ship gets hit by powerful waves and it moves a little. People get alerted and go through a series of steps to check that everything is ok. The radar is working overtime. Weather conditions are evaluated. In contrast, the little boat gets hit by a relatively small wave and it gets rocked big time. Panic ensues. There’s little to check. One looks down at the hull to make sure the boat isn’t sinking. Then, everything from the overall course of the journey to where people are sitting gets scrutinized and second guessed. Forget the coming storm or iceberg. You’re just afraid to topple over and drown.
Professional trait required: Intense focus.
Personal trait required: Calm.
In closing …
Loss after loss leads to a feeling of loneliness. Loneliness can lead to doubt. Doubt erodes confidence. Lacking confidence means you’re easily distracted, increasingly risk averse, full of worry, and more susceptible to giving up. This is why startups must avoid the cycle of doom by being honest with itself and its people. Smart and talented people are harder to convince than dumb and incompetent people. I know it sounds harsh but it’s a fact of life. It’s tough to get people to gain confidence without any evidence. You have to adjust the meaning of winning and losing early on and support it with action. For example, winning could be finishing the product on time with a certain level of quality. Winning could be positive media coverage. Winning could be a successfully executed customer survey project. Winning could be attracting key talent. Winning could be removing technical risks and reducing market uncertainties. Make it easier for people to see the evidence.
To conclude, the most important professional and personal trait to have is confidence. A startup must grow, nurture, and protect it at all cost. Without it, you’ll be certain to add a big barrier to winning. And, winning (quite frankly) is the best fuel for winning. None of the laundry list of traits listed above can exist without confidence. Confidence is “how” you gained or kept those other key traits and a lack of confidence is “why” you don’t have those traits in the first place …
- John
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