Page 151 - 6 Secrets to Startup Success

130 6 SECRETS TO STARTUP SUCCESS

COMMITTING WITHOUT ATTACHING

In order to execute with agility, founders must successfully deal with
a paradox. Effective entrepreneurs are able to completely commit to
an idea, while remaining open to changing it. This ability to commit
to a path without becoming attached to it is no simple skill. In athletics,
the most agile athletes operate from a base of readiness, always under
control, reading the field around them and quickly responding to team-
mates and competitors. They come with a game plan but quickly im-
provise if needed to respond to unfolding events. They skillfully
manage the tension between rehearsed and spontaneous movement.

A similar tension permeates every startup journey. By following
your early plans, creating your first products and winning your first
customers, you create a base of strength and a platform from which
to move forward. But both successes and failures bring unforeseen op-
portunities and threats. You will need to reconsider early decisions
and most likely shift your offerings and your model. This ongoing ten-
sion between your pride in what you have built and your unending
desire to improve it is inherent in the process of bringing a concept
to life. It is the nature of an evolving, iterating idea becoming real.

The greater our passion, the more likely it is that we will fall vic-
tim to cognitive biases that encourage us to stick with an early idea,
even in the face of contradictory signals. The cognitive bias of anchor-
ing, for example, leads us to give too much weight to our first big idea
or strategy. We unconsciously filter new information so that it fits
within our established view of the venture, instead of provoking us to
see it in entirely new ways. Also coming into play is the sunk cost fallacy,
the cognitive bias that pressures founders and investors to stick with
an existing plan to avoid wasting previously invested time, money, and
effort. The real mistake, however, comes in thinking that prior invest-
ments somehow justify the continuation of a losing strategy.

The ability to commit without attaching has benefits ranging far
beyond the world of startups. Donald Sull, professor of management
practice at the London Business School and a global expert on man-
aging in turbulent markets, advises companies to “keep the vision
fuzzy and the priorities clear,” emphasizing the value of laser-like

American Management Association • www.amanet.org