These are the Grandpa Tales by Justo Hidalgo - you will read here about Product, Data and Behavior. I have founded a few companies, built a few products and written a few books. And I want to believe I still can play some hoops. Many posts in Spanish, increasingly in English.
A few weeks ago, I was invited to talk at a coaching event about entrepreneurship and resilience. While preparing the talk, I reflected on what had happened since my partners and I founded 24symbols, and the role resilience had for me to be still here after all these years. I found six elements that I found of value (after reading a few books), and I wanted to share them here.
#1. Actionable optimism
I am not a pure optimist at all, as anyone who has ever met me for
more than five minutes knows. I consider myself more of a stoic, someone
who cares about issues but that tries not to be affected by them
-though I do the first much better than the second-. But I am clearly
someone who sees opportunities with optimism. If something doesn't work,
I am sure we can do something else to continue our path. It may be hard
or difficult to find. It may even be too late when we find it. But it
exists.
#2. Moral compass
While running a business means you never know what is going to be
of you and your company in two years, and therefore, flexibility is key,
one must always have some red lines. For me, winning is NOT everything.
I would not have any issue in closing down the company or leaving it
right away if those lines are crossed. It can be pushing a marketing
campaign too far, or being forced to have some undesirable partners on
board. I need to feel that, if I am going to continue rowing as hard as I
can, I will always feel proud at the end of the lake even if the trip
was not completely successful.
#3. Support in others
I am not the best at this, but I acknowledge that the startup
ecosystem is wonderful in supporting or, at least, listening to each
other. There is always someone next to you with similar issues that is
willing to listen and try to help. This "don't worry I've been there"
support becomes really meaningful when things don't go well or options
are not clear, and definitely keep resilience at a higher level. I'm my
case, working with incredible startups that come from programs like Tetuan Valley, is just wonderful.
#4. Contingency plans
Obviously, a stoic approach is more than being passive, but "hoping
for the best, preparing for the worst". For me it is quite related to
the actionable optimism, but going one step further: what if that
doesn't work also? Is there a Plan B or C, even if they are outside of
the current project? This doesn't mean that we WANT to close down the
startup, but that even in the worst case, there is no black hole to
devour us. It's true, sometimes it's hard to find that contingency plan:
we are too young, or too old. Our domain expertise is too obscure, or
is too deprecated. Nobody knows me, or everyone knows my project failed.
But in most cases, there's a new opportunity there - not being "happy"
about this: sometimes there's not, and the problem we face is bigger.-
#5. Growth mindset
I have read in many places that one of the best ways to strengthen
our resilience is by having an uncompromising growth mindset. Only
thinking in growing is how the rest of the points mentioned above
integrate and work.
While a growth mindset is clearly positively correlated with
resilience, I have found many companies with impressive resilience JUST
BECAUSE THEY DECIDE NOT TO GROW. Or, at least, not in the way we
typically understand as growth. Basecamp
is the one that always comes to my mind. An incredibly successful
company that could very probably be a unicorn right now, but that
decided to limit themselves to a manageable number of people and
projects, with great-but-not-insanely-great salaries, and hunger for
becoming, as Ryan Holiday aptly defines, a perennial seller.
#6. Systems thinking
Last but not least, my engineering mind finds it quite comforting
when I can match the situation I am running into as part of a system I
trust. I won't go into details thee, but since my mentor Eugene Shteyn
first told me about the 5-element analysis, back at his Stanford course
on innovation and creativity in 2008, I have always come to it in order
to grasp a feeling of the stage my company, or my product resides as
part of an industry or an ecosystem. When I'm successful, then I have a
better understanding of where things may go and, therefore, can think of
a more viable plan.
Summary: Stoicism
Since I started reading about Stoicism a few years ago, I
understood my approach to life and business relied a lot -thought not
all- on this philosophical ideal. And most of the points mentioned can
be appointed to it. A company, like a personal relationship, will
undergo constant ups and downs. Only if our main goal is to keep the
project up -within the limits that our ethics, morality or pragmatism
state- we will find the resilience and drive we need to make it happen.
And if we have done it that way, we will feel contempt regardless of
what finally happens, as we gave our best effort.
Comments