.Treat Each Obstacle, Setback or Challenge as if You Chose It to Happen
Life at a start-up is filled with many ups and downs, many surprises and many changes. When an obstacle arises it is common for people to fall into a habitual pattern of resistance and negativity. “Why did that syndication deal fall through? This sucks!” One may get caught up in the past trying to figure out what went wrong and who is to blame. This state of mind dampens creativity, is hard to shake and, most importantly, is contagious to those around you. Your team can’t afford your state of resistance, but also you cannot deny that an obstacle has arisen. What do you do?
It is simple, change the way you look at the obstacle. Don’t label the setback as “bad.” Don’t complain or feel sorry for yourself. Instead, treat that obstacle as if you chose it to happen. You chose it to happen because it is the next step in fulfilling your company’s destiny. Try this approach next time and see what happens. See if the dynamic changes. See if you enjoy the process more and come out in a stronger position.
This has worked well for us, and I would guess that a lot of successful start-ups have their own version of this. We would love to hear about yours. It is your destiny to tell us. ;-)
Another reason to embrace the set-backs is that a start-up is an emotional roller coaster. One day your site is featured in Wired, the next you lose a key hire you’ve been trying to land. The only way I’ve found to deal with that is to not treat them as failures and jackpots, but simply as another day growing a company.
And on a related topic, I noticed I’ve been catching myself from saying negative things out loud. For example, I’m checking sport scores and see the A’s lost a crucial game. If I exclaim “SHIT!” I’ve got to explain myself to everyone in earshot or they could easily assume it was something company-related. As John warns above ‘bad states of mind are contagious,’ even if they are mistakenly surmised.
You know, another mistake I think start-ups make is they try and sweep the set-back under the rug. For months they talk about the big partnership deal in the works and then suddenly no one mentions it. The leadership mistakenly thinks they are the only ones who feel let down, but all employees who have been working hard to make it happen also need closure on it, or they’ll care that much less the next time the company tries to fire everyone up.