The Start-Up Experience
Everything connected to everything. Opportunity and challenge.
There is a forced circular relationship between the abstract and concrete. This forces an opportunity and a challenge on all of us. We can, all of us, see the big picture, and, how it relates, in a circular way, to the individual (and group).
In short, there is a forced circular relationship between an individual and a group. This is the basis for networks. Markets. The individual. And, the group. Impacting the Start-up decision, and experience, for all of us.
So, this explains the transformation happening all around us. Entire industries are consolidating, changing the way we think about individuals and groups. Individuals in groups.
And, this affects how we think about autonomy. How do YOU define autonomy? As the leader, or, participant of a group? When, you know, yourself, you cannot have one without the other. Again, they share a ubiquitous, and, often troublesome, circular relationship.
So, the Start-Up experience is different, and, also, the same, for, any individual, and-or, group. Having to do with the definition, personally, and professionally, for autonomy. It is not safe to say, or believe, everyone is working with the same definition of autonomy. For some, it’s the self-sufficient state. For others, it’s financial freedom. For others, it’s leadership. Making a contribution to society. Living up to one’s capabilities. Etc.
So, this means we have to, always, evaluate goals. We have to know what our goals are. Are they financial? Or not. If they are financial, have you written them down? Once you write down your financial goal, and, then, commit to it, the rest takes care of itself.
So, now we have to think about commitment.
A financial goal is already achieved, somewhere, someplace. We use others to model our own behavior. We are inspired by others who have achieved what we hope to achieve, and, also, what we believe we can achieve. Nothing new here, really. Just the circular relationship between abstract and concrete.
However, if you dig very deeply into your own goals, you will, probably, notice, your own goals are not secure. They change. Depending on what is happening around you. In the present environment, cultural, financial, technological, abstract, and, real, it is easy to see, technology weakens, and, also, strengthens, financial goals for all of us. We can’t know what we don’t know, and, if technology is changing everything, that includes ‘goals.’
So, this takes us back to autonomy. Everyone’s goal is to survive in a financial reality. Because it’s not possible, in our culture, to exist without a financial reality. So, for all of us, goals are, necessarily, tied to finance, and finance is, necessarily tied to technology.
This explains the Start-Up experience in general, universal, terms. Starting anything takes courage and patience. Everybody knows this. It’s the goal setting that is strategic at this point, since everything is blurred, as everything, in an abstract way, is already connected to everything else.
So this separates, clearly, the young from the old, the rich from the poor, the educated from the non-educated. It explains why everything is ‘polarized’ at the moment. Zero and one (modern) is yin and yang (ancient). You can’t have one without the other. So, this is what all of us encounter, during any ‘start-up’ experience.
There is a circular relationship between start and finish. You already know this, explaining why you are interested in, what you have made of, or what you will make of, the Start-Up experience. Conservation of the circle is the core dynamic in nature, dictating everything that happens in a Start-Up, including whether or not you will be successful (have been successful) as the leader, or participant, in a Start-up.
Ilexa Yardley is the author of The Circular Theory (on Amazon.com). Yardley is a retired technologist, financial intermediary, and business developer. Presently, editor of The Circular Theory.
