How To Think Like A Startup
Some days I look around my room and yearn for change. So I move my bed to a corner. Take the table to another. Bring out the big guns — mop and broom — and begin to clean.
Then all of a sudden, it’s nighttime. And apparently, I‘m not ready to dedicate my entire day to cleaning. I have other things to do. Like cook dinner. And I need to cook dinner. Like right now [hunger creeps on you like a bastard]. You’ve probably found yourself in a similar situation; You decided to do something only to realise later that you weren’t cut out for it.
When it comes to hiring, companies seem to take forever to do anything. Some companies take days to send you a confirmation email while others straight up ghost you. After that, they go over your application. Then they deliberate. That takes anywhere from 2–8 weeks. Then they contact you. For a preliminary call — The actual “interview” is divided into as many stages as they want. And that can take up to, and sometimes, more than a month.
The whole affair is arbitrary [and it annoys me to this day]. But something is worth noting; Good decisions are crucial to a company’s success. Companies thrive on making good choices consistently because the opposite leads to failure. However, these arbitrary procedures often plague companies as they grow. That’s why startups [smaller/younger companies] are so fascinating. After internalising for a bit, I decided on three strategies worth emulating in everyday life.
The Framework:
00. Delay decisions.
Never make a crucial decision quickly. Because bad decisions compound. One wrong decision can cascade down a chasm of suboptimal options.
Setting up artificial blockers will help you make better decisions faster in the long run. Delaying also gives you time to rid yourself of sentiments that subjugate curiosity like anger, joy, or despair.
01. Be Accountable
Now that we’ve determined how important our decision is, it’s critical to weigh options, account for the people our choice will affect, how deep the effects go etc.
If your decision affects another person, have a conversation with them. Let them know [even if they won’t agree with your choice]. If your decision affects you, have that conversation with yourself. Documenting your thought process also helps.
10. Go all in
The nice part about not being a company is that most of your choices are divorced from strict KPIs and profit margins*. Sometimes you’ll decide based on what you knew at the time and still “fail.” As long it was thought out, that’s OK. Learn from it. Gather more data and grow.
So the next time you decide on buying something, accepting an offer, negotiating, going out, or marrying someone, do it with passion. Embrace conviction. Find confidence. When you make a decision, stick to it.
Extraneous notes (in a bid to be more correct):
- * There are other intangible metrics, obviously.
- I cut many examples/analogies from the article for brevity, so context might prove insufficient for some people. I apologise for this. Maybe I’ll release the extended cut as an NFT — 10 years from now. Lol, I jest…Unless?
- If you liked the article or thought it was OK, clap like the old days, like the primary school days.
- If you hated it, DM me saying why. I love debates.
- Fin
