Was going through popular book “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff … and it’s all small stuff” by Richard Carlson, PhD and realized lot of the points outlined by Richard are applicable precisely for enterpreneurs in their startup journey.
Make peace with imperfection:
As a startup, we always are short of resources that are typically available for a big corporation. When resources are scarce, its difficult and often impossible to achieve perfection in all things. Its better to accept the same and make peace with imperfection. The same applies to all activities in startup – whether it is do with kind of talent we might want in the team, the kind of expectations you have with the sub-ordinates/peers or simple things like the way office is maintained, non availability of admin support when you have your important meetings scheduled in the office.
Remember that having zero items in ToDo list doesn’t mean success:
As an entrepreneur, your To-Do list is almost infinite. You have hundreds of things to do and the more you complete the activities in your to-do list, the more seem to get added. Don’t worry about this as this is more than natural for all entrepreneurs. So never get yourself so tensed up to complete all activities in your ToDo list. Prioritize and work on important tasks and move on.
Learn to Live in the Present Moment:
It’s important to learn from the mistakes in the past and plan for the future. But the most important success factor for any startup is execution. And key for succesful execution is to focus on the present moment. Focusing on present moment, important tasks that we are working on hand will give us best results and success.
Allow Yourself to Be Bored:
As entrepreneurs, thanks to the infinite ToDo list, we will ending up having no time for ourself or to relax. It’s a good idea to take some time out of our busy schedules and be idle. Being idle atleast for few minutes each day will give us new perspective and believe me this is the time most of us will come up with breakthrough ideas to scale the venture to the next level.
Repeat to Yourself, “Startup Isn’t an Emergency”
One can’t run a startup or a business as an emergency. Startup will usually go on if things don’t go according to the plan. And infact most of times in startups, things will not go per the plan. If one feels it as an emergency, things will only go worse from where they are.
Do One Thing at a Time:
Multi-tasking will do no good to any entrepreneur. Focus is the key. Work on one thing at a time, complete the same and move on to the next one. Your productivity will go manifold by just focusing on one thing at a time.
Get Comfortable Not Knowing:
You will not know about many areas of the business. Instead of feeling overwhelmed on multiple facets of business which you don’t know, get comfortable with the same. Most of the times, it will turn out to be a blessing in disguise. People who know all the things, will end up not doing anything as they are scared how tough it is to do!!
Give Up on the Idea that “More Is Better”
It’s always easy to believe that “More is Better”. Who doesn’t want more funding, more people in the team? But the point is that if you always want/desire more then you will not be able to focus on achieving results in what you have. Focus on what you have and maximise the results from it. If you do it right, automatically more will come to you.
Keep Asking Yourself, “What’s Really Important?”
With limited resources, limited time its important that one focuses only on few important things that have a maximum impact. In the rush of things, lot of us end up spending lot of time on things which are not really important. Always take a step back and keep thinking what’s really important and that will help you to focus and maximise the success.
Startup Is a Test. It Is Only a Test
When you look at startup and its many challenges as a test, or series of tests, you begin to see each issue you face as an opportunity to grow, a chance to roll with the punches. Whether you’re being bombarded with problems, responsibilities, even insurmountable hurdles, when looked at as a test, you always have a chance to succeed, in the sense of rising above that which is challenging you. If, on the other hand, you see each new issue you face as a serious battle that must be won in order to survive, you’re probably in for a very rocky journey. The only time you’re likely to be happy is when everything is working out just right. And we all know that won’t happen anytime.
Do add to the list of the “small stuff” that entrepreneurs should not sweat about based on your experiences in the comments section!
