Why startup? Motivation beyond unicorn
One of the ways I look upon startup life is deeply correlated with motivation, encompassing the things I feel. Is this important? Well, I believe this is the base of the pyramid 😃
Context
Everyone has her/his own way of perceiving the world, values, beliefs, and possesses the intellectual decoding of her/his circumstances. For me, a team / a company is a group of people joined together by shared feelings, desires, values, that promotes a common purpose.
The first and foremost purpose of any business is to generate value, otherwise it would not be a business endeavour. The second purpose is to do it differently, in a new, disruptive way which, in cv30 case, translates into facilitating the natural, frictionless process of finding a great team to work with, hence to make money, learn, grow, gain social inclusion and even find a sense of purpose.
A startup is not only an intellectual framework of processes and KPIs optimised for performance, but also an endeavour that boosts the need to challenge yourself on every level and this awakes all sorts of feelings, good or bad. The everyday grasp of the newly adjusted reality makes the neurones and cells adapt, learn, grow — and this sensation makes me feel alive, it sharpens all my senses.
Any social system needs rules, incentives and penalties to function. It needs pruning, adjustment and improvement to compete and last as long as possible. But instead of using the social system syntagm, why not use a social game? It is basically the same, but sounds a bit more fun 😃
A game has rules, penalties, incentives, competition, adjustment, improvement, pruning, bad actors, malfunctions , logic flaws, etc.
What keeps the player hooked and coming back to play it with passion?
Well, what is passion if not the ability to be true to what you feel and do as you feel? When each feeling’s nature is true and expressed as felt, it creates a synergy between the inside and the outside, which people define as passion.
Thus, in order to be present in the moment, all the player’s feelings are connected to the game. He connects directly with the incentives, rules, penalties, competition (other players), etc. This part — the direct connection — is crucial, as here is where the jobs come into play most of the times.
First time you buy a new car you are excited about it and wash it yourself maybe for 1–2 hours just to see it shine and how nice it is. Then, you take it to the car wash and later on you would happily pay someone to take it to the car wash for you. Meanwhile, this person has a job, doing something that you need to be done, but you no longer have the drive, desire or time to do it. This person is not passionate to take your car to the car wash, so you put an indirect incentive: money. This is commonly known as extrinsic motivation.
As I accumulate more and more things in my life, there are two options: either I part ways with what I have accumulated, either I pay someone to take care of those areas that I do not have the time or desire anymore to do them.
The magic of the startup world is not only that I am in direct contact with all incentives and the game changes constantly keeping me motivated day by day, but also that the team members are in direct contact. Money is important as it pays for rent, food, clothes, a bit of social life, but the feeling of game playing is true without carrots and sticks — the main motivational factor is this truthfulness of the game which comes on the first place and money comes on the second one.
There is no need or place for false appearances, as any mask is needed only if it makes the game more enjoyable. We split pizza, have a beer and start provoking each other on who has a better way of playing the game. And many times, while playing, other character traits come into light, the ones everyone tries to burry somewhere or avoid to let them surface in social or business environment. This creates friction with one self, which in our space is not happening, nor is it encouraged. Good, bad, right, wrong, it doesn’t matter — as for us it’s more relevant to be connected to reality, to each other, to our clients, partners, users and together to take the game to next level.
Amazon calls this “always day one” , Steve Jobs used to say “Stay hungry, stay foolish” — once this connection with the game incentives is cut off, people start paying more attention to form & structure.
