Knowing your strengths

Most entrepreneurs don't do '100 questions that reveal your career' kind of stuff before they start their own businesses. Usually it is a gut thing, probably a cocktail of nature, nurture, social trends and/or college buddies that bubbles up and gets you drunk on the startup allure. But there are times that you sometimes wonder if you're in the right line of work. And of course, those times are pretty much only when things are a little bumpy - introspection is a four-syllable word that's mostly forgotten when life's a beach.

So, I wasn't introspecting per se (I know I'm doing what I care about, in spite of the occasional bumps), but a friend of mine was eager to share her experience with others and got me to take the Strengths Finder quiz. This test (available online at www.strengthsfinder.com) is built on the theory that you're better off knowing your strengths and building on them, instead of trying to fix your weakness (you take care of those by partnering with those with complementary strengths). Sounds reasonable, and I was willing to do the test to find out what my strong points were while I was desultorily watching TV one night (a rerun of Torchwood, a campy, over-the-top Brit X-files clone) . It was fast, easy, and I found my strengths, but also something that I didn't expect. I found out that I am exactly where I should be - doing a startup. It was so spot-on that it seemed like I somehow gamed the test, though I know I couldn't have as I was on a tear to get it done in the shortest possible time. Looks like there's some substance to this quiz after all.

Anyway, it came back with the five top 'themes' for me: strategic, futurist, connectedness, ideation (creative word-making here), activator. I was thrilled to find it sort of boils down to what I'd decided was important to me as I'd written in my previous post many months ago: create, connect, care. If you're ever inclined to find out more about yourself, I'd recommend giving this a try (as my friend did to me). It may tell you what you already know, or it might point out new directions to consider. Doesn't hurt, and may actually help, or at least give you fodder for discussion with your cohorts. Validation of my career choice is very satisfying. Now to get the same for the product and market....

The adaptive startup

Shift to succeed. Actually, that should be ‘shift to survive’ since survival is success for startups.

Course corrections keep a startup afloat and moving forward instead of bobbing in place, or worse, getting up close and personal with rock-bottom. Every entrepreneur and his/her team would of course insist that they’re aware, and unafraid, of making corrections. But like many other good intentions, these could very well get reduced to minor acts of marginal significance (much like a chapter in a book devolving to a blog post to a Twitter tweet to a Facebook status update…).

The reason is that course corrections are hard to do. Even for ‘mere websites’ where you can make a change and publish it right away to your user base, a shift in features or market is not easy to undertake, especially for a startup with limited resources. Things get easier when you’re bigger and have enough revenue to support changes – but when you lack a cash goat, let alone a cow, it may be tempting to think you’d be more damned if you do than if you don’t. And a shift may be needed any time during the first few years, from the time you’re sketching out a business plan until you’ve established a steady and growing revenue stream, and beyond. (Even the big guns have to pay attention to shifting fast enough and hard enough to stay ahead of the competition, and sometimes their problem is that they're too big and set in their ways to move.)

Shifts can represent a narrowing of focus or an expansion, and both can be difficult. For example, even in our early user-trial stage, we’re hearing the need to add more features to just one specific area. It’s great to get this feedback and know what is really needed, but that means a drag-n-drop to trash of most of our plans and a new hunt for resources with specific skills. While it may be a shorter leap from a marketing perspective, development teams usually get seriously frazzled when asked to set aside what they’ve slaved over so far (and got very emotionally attached to) and move to something else, especially if they feel it is unproven. But, there are few guarantees in a startup, and you just have to keep the focus - build what your customers/users want! - and get on with it. For much the same reasons, more established startups may shift by adding whole new offerings that could change the game, not just the way it's played. In a previous post I'd written about Sharpcast and their founder CEO Gibu Thomas as a quintessential entrepreneur. At that time they were just readying their beta which was about auto-sharing and syncing photo albums across different devices, and they'd got plenty of advance praise. As one of their beta testers myself, I really liked their product, but could see a lot of other, more urgent, uses for that functionality. They are sharp people (pardon the pun) and figured out what grabbed their users very quickly, but I can imagine that delivering it, while supporting what they already had out there, was no easy task even with funding. It took some time, but they now have a new offering available in beta, which has already garnered great reviews (see the ReadWriteWeb post here). Looks like they're on to a good thing.

But is all change good? Shouldn't you hold on to your original vision instead of just 'selling out' to what could be a temporary trend? That is why course corrections are hard, you don't just do them - you have analyze and define them first, and as an entrepreneur you do have to ask yourself if your vision can encompass the change or if this is nothing like what you imagined, not in a good way. And when you do figure it out, you still have to sell it to your team, and they may balk, which is a good thing because it will force you to understand and communicate why it is the right thing to do. Shifts can be required in operational areas too (how you host for example), not just product or market strategy, and the more open-minded and alert you are, the more likely you are to see the need for course corrections, though thankfully they're not always large in scope.

Startups = change, and it's best to embrace it and thrive.

Reminders for the new year

New Year's resolutions. I don't make them and haven't done so for ages. Resolutions seem like stuff you feel you have to do, not want to do, and typically you perceive them as something hard. When I look at the year ahead, I prefer to think of all the things I'd like to remember to be or do pretty much on a daily basis, channeling the inner entrepreneur who usually comes in loud and clear but can occasionally enter a no-coverage zone. Hence the reminders.

The other thing is that if you have twenty-five items to be tracked they are just a to-do list and not in the realm of attitudinal or behavioral nudges. Short, memorable and already a part of your 'way', some entrepreneurial reminders for the new year:

• Keep the faith. You may need to do a course adjustment or two, but hold on to your passion and shake off any creeping doubts - you are an entrepreneur, and this is what you should be doing.
• Stay focused. There might be stresses about funding and what investors may think, and whether you're missing something by not showing up as the next big thing on the blog lists, but those are not core to your mission. You know that the only thing that you should focus on is building a business that will delight your customers/users and staying afloat. Everything else will fall into place with that.
• Pay attention to people. They are not just investors, engineers, marketers, or users. They are individuals and need attention.
• Feel the joy. You're an entrepreneur because you love being one - don't forget to revel in it.

Hmmm, these look like they could work for most folks, not just entrepreneurs. All good. Universal truths work better.

Salud!