Page 205 - 6 Secrets to Startup Success

184 6 SECRETS TO STARTUP SUCCESS

FOCUS ON ACHIEVABLE GOALS

One of the challenges for passionate founders with ambitious ideas
is to not be overwhelmed and stymied by the size and complexity of
the venture opportunity. The old axiom about how to eat an ele-
phant—one bite at a time—will serve you well as you seek to accel-
erate down your startup runway. Break your grand vision into
shorter-term, readily achievable goals to encourage clear progress
and rapid iteration. From a motivational perspective, the achievement
of each step brings its own psychological reward, a dose of satisfac-
tion, and a sense that your venture is gaining ground.

In an article summarizing a longitudinal study of nascent entre-
preneurs, Sibin Wu, Linda Matthews, and Grace Dagher of the Uni-
versity of Texas (Pan American) observe that achievement-oriented
entrepreneurs tend to do best with a measured approach to goal set-
ting. “For highly complex tasks, such as the entrepreneurial process,
difficult goals are not as effective as simple goals,” they write. “Entre-
preneurs tend to be overconfident and overestimate their abilities and
their business goals. They may overconfidently set their goals too high
. . . and hence experience dissatisfaction instead of satisfaction.”10 It’s
important to emphasize here that setting achievable goals does not
equate to shrinking from adversity or ignoring challenging tasks. The
lesson is not to abandon your ultimate vision but to keep your eyes
focused on the difficult but achievable steps that will get you there.

To boost the positive effect of your short-term goal setting, create
regular points of accountability at which you will share results with
others. Paul Graham, founder of Y Combinator, a seed-stage technol-
ogy venture capital fund, has wryly observed that perhaps the biggest
differentiator between successful and failing startup teams funded by
Y Combinator is how consistently these founding teams attend Tues-
day night dinners hosted by him and his colleagues. In a talk to his
founders entitled “How Not to Die,” Graham said, “You’ve probably
noticed that having dinners every Tuesday with us and the other
founders causes you to get more done than you would otherwise, be-
cause every dinner is a mini Demo Day. Every dinner is a kind of a
deadline. So the mere constraint of staying in regular contact with us

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