This video emphasizes the mindset shift required to transition from a corporate role to entrepreneurship, highlighting the need to overcome fear and adapt to the fast-paced, multi-faceted nature of startup life. It advises against bringing corporate habits into a startup environment and encourages embracing diverse responsibilities.
What this video covers
Own your fear. What is the absolute worst that can happen? Is your company going to fail? Are you going to be able to continue breathing? Ask yourself that question because the worst thing that can happen is that the company fails and that you go back to your boring 9 to 5.
Mindset is a really big one because here’s the thing: when you’re working for a large corporation, essentially, you’re going to see – and you’re going to get comfortable with how slow they move. Literally, they’re like snails. Now, here, the worst thing that you can do is grab whatever bad habits you had from being in a big corporation and bringing those to a small operation like your startup.
You need to be okay with wearing differing hats. The thing in a corporation is that you’re going to be tasked with a certain responsibility, with a certain title. In a startup, when you’re running your own business, it’s a completely different ballgame. Here, one day something is required, and the next day something completely different is required, and your attention needs to be exactly to whatever fire you need to be putting out.
Also, you need to be okay with uncertainty because the journey in front of you is completely uncertain. You don’t know what’s going to happen, where you’re going to be the next day, the month after, whatever that is, but you need to be able to adapt to whatever is in front of you.
Rather than asking yourself, “What if this? What if that?” just deal with whatever is in front of you. That’s the only thing that you can do. Don’t worry about anything else because nothing else matters. It’s all about what is in front of you, and execution, when you’re in your own startup, is absolutely everything. So, be okay with that uncertainty.
Again, being in a corporate 9 to 5, you have the certainty of knowing what the day-after is going to look like. In a startup, maybe even the day after, you may be dying – the company may be dying, so for that reason, you need to be able to adapt very quickly and just always deal with whatever is in front of you.
You don’t know what you don’t know. The thing about startups is that you need to adapt; you need to learn; you need to learn very quickly. In many instances, you’re going to find that there are certain things that you didn’t even know were there.
Stay flexible. You never know how you’re going to have to change things over. But again, whether it’s the business plan that you go to market with – again, there’s not a single business plan that is bulletproof or a pitch deck. And, by the way, below is the pitch deck template that you can use that founders are actually using all over the world to raise millions. But stay flexible. Listen to your customers.
Get a team. Get the best team that you can because it’s all about having a class of people that help you on the execution. Maybe there are people that you remember from college that have those certain skillsets that maybe they are developing that could be helpful to you.
Buckle in. Buckle in because it’s going to be an emotional rollercoaster. Some days, it’s going to feel like everything is coming to an end. Another day, everything is so beautiful, so great. But during the early days, unfortunately, most of the days are super tough. You’re putting out fires every single day, but here’s the thing: while 90% of the days may be tough and may be greyish, maybe rainy days, the other 10% should be so great that they compensate for those 90%.
