Dear Introverts,
Being who you are is okay. We see many startup faces making ear-grabbing public speeches and you may think, “Startup people are charismatic and outgoing!” But remember, Bill Gates is an introvert. (Microsoft was a startup at some point in history, right?)
Being an introvert, my brain is my canvas and I like to paint on it all day. I pen out my thoughts on our company’s blog or social media channels and communicate with our customers. I go deep into what customer’s need to know and deliver that in a friendly way.
My boss is the very opposite of who I am. This is just an extreme example, but he tends to have one good plan and shoots for it, while I always set up plan A to Z. (Kinda sucks that we have only 26 letters in our alphabet.) When he is running in full throttle, I put a comma in the way for evaluation from time to time. It’s a good balance.
As a marketing and PR person, networking with and talking to a lot of people is one important task. This was a challenge for me because I am extremely fluent in being awkward.
Still, I put myself out there and willingly attended various social settings. And, here is what I came to learn.
I don’t need to be afraid of silence. The moment you say “This is awkward” in your head, it really becomes a reality. Instead, I take a deep breathe and think of a good question to start a conversation. Silence is sometimes needed in a social scene so the attendees can catch their breathe.
The fact that introverts are good listeners make us awesome. You need them in the room, too. In networking events, everyone there is eager to speak about his or her product and company. A simple question like “What do you guys do?” or “How did you come up with your product?” will start a decent conversation. You don’t need to feel pressured to do all the talking. Once you guys run out of things to say, it’s fine to leave the scene as long as you’re polite. All of us are there to interact with more than one person.
Because I’m the marketer of Easiway, people ask me a lot of questions about the service. Because I am an introvert, I used to overthink and sometimes panic if I don’t always have the answers. Now, I shallow my chill pill and say, “Let me check and I’ll get back to you.” It’s not the end of the world as long as I keep my word. I have never met someone who got offended because I wasn’t a supercomputer who had the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. So, that’s good.
My dear Introverts, the startup world is not a startup world without its diversity. So let’s stay the way we are.
Sincerely,
Your fellow introverted friend
