Tag: start

Flexibility

FabrizioLeave a comment

You need to train your capacity of letting go of ideas, projects, opinions.

Because when you get too attached to those, you risk getting your perspective on the world narrowed. And that’s when you stop learning and developing.

There’s no need to start with big things, but if you can open yourself to a different opinion, delegate a project to somebody you trust, abandon an idea that’s not taking you anywhere, and if you can do it over and over again, that is a great training for your future flexibility.

Scams

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There’s an increasing amount of people that sells get-rich-quick schemes. They leverage weakness and dissatisfaction, and they abuse platforms that don’t care about quality, or well-being, or best interest. Their quid pro quo is usually something like “give me a few hundreds euros to enroll in this class and this person will teach you how to make thousands of euros every day”.

I know it sounds great. I know it’s appealing. I know it’s a difficult time, and it will probably get more difficult before it gets easier.

But those are scams.

The only way is the long, impervious, boring, frustrating way of doing.

So take the urgency of those fake gurus and channel it towards a practice. Start now.

Equinox doesn’t speak January

FabrizioLeave a comment

A positioning statement is not for everybody.

It’s supposed to divide, in order to conquer. It’s supposed to draw a clear line between trite practices and a new way. It’s supposed to be met with opposition, disdain, surprise, resistance – first of all, from those who are supposed to approve and support it.

If a positioning statement does not do that, it’s not a positioning statement.

This IS a positioning statement.

Love it or hate it. That’s the whole point.

Detox

FabrizioLeave a comment

A great resolution for the new year, in case you are late and wonder how to jump on the bandwagon, is to give up on your phone.

Not completely, not immediately.

Start with one hour. Leave it off, in another room. Or even better, check your weekly usage report and start with those apps that you feel are wasting the most of your time. Get rid of them, hide them, lock them.

If you manage to do it consistently for a few days in a row, it will stick, I promise.

The reward is now.

Supporting

FabrizioLeave a comment

If you are going to interview for a startup, between 30 and 100 employees, spend your focus probing one thing: what is the role of the founders?

That’s a critical phase for a founder to change their role: from guiding force to supporting resource. All the energy, the motivation, the knowledge, the urge that has led the founders to start the company needs to be passed over for it to scale, and the only way to do that is if the founders are capable to take a supporting role and let go of things, responsibilities, decisions.

It’s not really a matter of roles or of titles, but a matter of attitude. Look at three things.

  1. The tenure of the people who have joined the startup in the second phase, from 15 to 40 employees. If they leave soon, particularly if they have previous experience and success, that’s a sign the founders are still very much in control.
  2. The way the company spends money to train and promote (promising) employees. If there’s little to no money invested in personal development, salary adjustments, perks and benefits, that’s a sign the founders are still very much in control.
  3. The dynamic of the leadership team, the people who manage people. If there’s separation, factions, silos instead of unity, togetherness, mutual projects, that’s a sign the founders are still very much in control.

It’s important, because when founders act as a support to a growing company, it can be a beautiful opportunity. When they aim at retaining control, instead, well that’s not for everybody.