- Leadership
- Communication
- Decision Making
- Focus
- Team Work
and this is why is chose this list to be like what it is –
- Leadership
A good definition comes from former Secretary of State Colin Powell who said:
You have achieved excellence as a leader when people will follow you anywhere if only out of curiosity
For our purposes, we can generalize this to be the measure of the quality of a leader: the quantity, quality and diversity of people who want to follow her. I read this on a very good article on techcrunch, which further said –
- The ability to articulate the vision – The Steve Jobs Attribute
- The right kind of ambition – The Bill Campbell Attribute
- The ability to achieve the vision – The Andy Grove Attribute
Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people
- Communication
- Decision Making
Decision Making is also one important thing for any leader, take me for example, I have finally taken a very crucial decision of not getting off my chair until i complete this post, although its 2 AM right now and its Diwali night ( tough decisions make tough leaders! right…)
Well I believe good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions. Thus, it is a good decision to unknowingly make bad decisions initially when the costs involved are small so that one can be prepared for bigger gambles. This applies for start-ups as well. I agree with Laura Parkin who has mentioned similar things at her blog here. Start-Ups generally make the mistakes of either making decisions very fast or very slow. I guess, with PhotoWalkrs, I have been somewhat slow in bringing a coder on-board or coding myself, thus we are still at a stage where we could have been a couple of months ago.There are no good or bad decisions, just their consequences which can be favorable or unfavorable sometimes, and this depends on many factors apart from the decision which led to them. Thus, a team is responsible for it’s decisions and has to tackle the bad ones while enjoying the good ones.
- Focus
I guess the easiest thing in this world is to lose focus ! I mean this thing is so trivial that nobody even realizes it. Even Mozart says –
the shorter way to do many things is to do only one thing at a time
Start-Ups generally are made by people who are already doing some day job or are studying something which might be totally different to their start-up idea. Thus, it is a fairly reasonable to say that start-ups founders are out of focus when they are starting-up! It surely is a difficult thing for them to stay focused on one thing, because had they been that way, they would have not even started thinking about starting-up with their crazy idea ! Henry David Thoreau rightly said
one must not only aim right but also draw his bow with all his might
Thus, having the best team, right skills, conducive environment and effective leader is not enough until the team is focused on achieving what they had set to. Its very easy to give-up in middle but only after this tiresome journey, the final destination is achieved, and generally there is only one who claims the top prize. For start-ups to achieve true success, they have to have microscopic as well as telescopic vision. The leader should know when to shift the gears and when to change the speed. Start-ups have to face stiff competition from their day one, thus it can be very costly for any team if they lose focus even on any minute aspect, because every tiny cog is necessary to keep the main shaft in motion!
- Team Work
Start-ups run on a simple mantra
None of us is as smart as all of us
Well, i guess everybody in the class had mentioned this point immediately after leadership, after all start-ups are built on relationships between the founders, bonding between the limited employees and networks between the company and its partners. It is of utmost importance that everyone in the team realizes his worth and each other’s worth as well. A good team is the biggest asset any company can have and i guess this is the only raw material anyone ever needs for a successful venture.
Having said all this, I would also like to say that since having a few exceptional men is better than having a decent crowd, because its just the few exceptional ones that a start-up needs to move forward. Thus, I’ve kept this as the last in the list of top 5.
Well, ill be glad to any more points to this list and make any modifications if suggested! Good luck to all those who are staring-up soon!
Very good post. I would hands down say that the number 1 thing on your list should be talent, passion and dedication of the team and their ability to work together.