Page 170 - 6 Secrets to Startup Success

CHAPTER SEVEN

Integrity of
Communication

Your Secret Startup Weapon

“They are simple tools, and almost all children are adept in their use
by the age of ten. Yet presidents and kings will often forget to use them,
to their own downfall. The problem lies not in the complexity of these
tools but in the will to use them.”

—M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled

The simplest principles for new venture success are sometimes the
hardest to put into practice. Most entrepreneurs and investors will
agree that getting the facts about a situation—good, bad, or ugly—
is more important than being proved right, and the value of honestly
airing differences far outweighs the discomfort it might cause. Yet
many of these same venture teams operate from within feel-good
bubbles, where perceptions and conversations are distorted by po-
liteness or prejudgment, and where early biases harden into unques-
tioned dogma.

Cognitive biases are as plentiful as they are powerful, so it’s not
surprising that blind spots develop quickly and naturally during the

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