What is the “Startup Mentality”?
Hint: it’s not ping pong tables and unlimited vacation.
I appreciated the cheeky goodness recently posted in The Startup Grind Team’s medium post “fuck you start up world”. It was posted in great humor, and it’s intended audience were those already immersed in the shit.
But, despite the litany of grievances, gosh did it all still sound so enjoyable!
Frankly, that’s just not my startup world. Sure, I’ve got tremendous camaraderie between my founder family, and can appreciate the references to drinking culture, incoherent acronyms, and the silly behaviors we all engage in to mask stress — I’ve even seen Soylent show up in our co-working fridge.
A more honest understanding of my startup world is operating under major swings of uncertainty — at times with your clients, sometimes with your investors, but most frequently with yourself.
Uncertainty is the fundamental difference when comparing more established organizations and wannabe entrepreneurs to startups — not emerging technology, progressive project management or geeky communication tools. You can change the people, the processes, and the technology, but if you’re entire organization is not galvanized by operating with the deep-down feeling that everything you’ve poured your heart and soul into goes away in months (or weeks), all the lean startup principles in the world won’t change how you operate.
If you’re really trying to adopt a startup mentality, wake up every day immediately thinking about all that you did not accomplish and how objectives have probably already changed, judging by the 15 emails in your inbox since you last checked it at midnight. Don’t even look at slack — the numerical indicator on your iPhone is enough to push you into a panic attack. Fire off a number emails before you’ve thrown off the covers, and readjust your plans for the next 10 hours in the 5 minutes you have in the shower. Give yourself a pep talk to keep a positive outlook with your coworkers and your customers, because lord knows if you crack, they crack too. Remember coffee, if you’re lucky.
Operating with a startup mentality means that runway is reality. Either you’ve got enough of your forward-facing actions in place to score the next client, or the financial and familial security goes quickly out the window for you and everyone you’ve roped into this endeavor. Each moment is pregnant with the past, present, and future, so optimizing every second is a necessity. This isn’t academic, this isn’t corporate mental masturbation — this is urgency in its truest sense.
So when I think about why established corporations don’t get why they’re being “ubered”, or why it’s so hard to talk about startup culture who those who haven’t been induced, I liken it to going through puberty alone. Good luck trying to explain why your voice is cracking to someone with the chords of an angel.
Bottom line: if you feel secure, then you’re not in my startup world.
