Milestones that took nine months now take two. I’ve expressed in previous posts that, over time, inputs and outputs are highly correlated. My thoughts on compounding are well documented. Underscoring it all is a mentality.
Yes, strategy is critical. That is a certainty. But strategy alone is hollow in a startup. It’s too cerebral relative to the rawness of building from zero. In a startup, you need 100% conviction and brute force. Building something from nothing requires a warrior mentality. The warrior’s mentality afforded a strategic vision is the proper hierarchy.
No role nor title diminishes the importance of each individual possessing this mentality. It doesn’t matter if you are sweeping a floor, packing a box, writing software, or closing a deal. Each and every action is a building block toward crafting excellence.
In this pursuit, there will be mistakes. So long as they are a product of positive intent and exist inside a feedback loop, mistakes are encouraged. The clearest and fastest path toward optimization is revealed through mistakes. With organizational self-awareness, mistakes = learning. We want to increase the velocity of learning in perpetuity.
There is a saying that offense wins games, and defense wins championships. That’s false. Teams win games. Teams win championships. The key is that the team embodies a unified belief that there is nothing to defend. Fear of mistakes, or anything else, is wholly absent. When this mentality is branded onto the soul of an organization, the offense never leaves the field.
No matter how big we get, the mentality never changes. Mentality wins.