Startup passion – do you have it?
Working in a startup is always an interesting ride. There is no way of surviving it unless the founders have utmost passion for what they are doing. Not all startup entrepreneurs have passion and not all startups will succeed. The big question is whether you have the team that loves their startup also in bad times.
I’ve been lately quite active with several people aiming to become entrepreneurs in their own startups. It is very exciting to get involved with people who have come up with an idea that is still in development. Those people have passion and enthusiasm, and they take their thing very seriously.
Passion is an amazing mental power.
Looking at the established corporations, it is so difficult to find passion anywhere. Either passion is buried in the processes or then people are there just to earn money.
The big question is how to transfer the passion from the startup scene to the more established world?
- Give people permission to succeed?
- Give them cool projects?
- Give them more competitive salary with benefits?
- Give them a nice set of tools to work with?
- Give them stock options?
- Lead them better?
I personally believe that startup passion can exist in any company and organization. All you need to do is to define what people are really supposed to do, then find the people who really want to do it and allow them to excel in their task.
Trying to make a job look like something else than what it really is is a bad thing to do. It will only lead to disappointments from both sides of the story. Disappointments do not create any passionate results and valuable contribution for the best of the organization.
Today is a good day to ask yourself, your colleagues and your employees: Do you have passion for what you do?
If the answer is no, the next question should be: What do you have passion for? What is the thing you love to do more than anything and where you can be better than most of the people?
Do you have passion for what you do?
Share this:
corporations energy leadership moment of truth passion startups work
2 Responses
I got one word for you: Supercell.
Part of the passion in startups comes from reporting to nobody and being able to take responsibility of the innovation. You can dream of changing the world and you are ultimately responsible for making it happen. This doesn’t sit well in corporate environment where you need to report to your manager, who reports to his manager, who has no idea what you are doing and why unless it fits his agenda. The only way to bring startup passion to bigger companies is to create really small independent units that have the permission to do whatever they want, including a permission to fail (ie. spend 3 months on something and then admit it was a bad idea, and be cheered rather than penalized).
Not many corporations are able to provide such environment, which is why they tend to sit back and watch the startup world, and buy the companies that are doing the things they would like to do. Which is not a bad thing as the trade sale exit market is a necessary part of the ecosystem.
Supercomments on @supercellgames ! They are a good example on new kind of thinking. Is @ipaananen to blame?
Exits are very important, but what happens to the working culture when integrated to a giant?