Behind the scenes of start up success

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful”.

Albert Schweitzer

Let’s talk about behind the scenes of building a tech business….and what it takes to be successful.

First, you must decide what success means to you and shocker, this is different for every single person.  Is it a big fat paycheck?  Is it work/life balance? Is it creating something new? Is it building a lasting team? Is it M&A? Is it press, notoriety, visibility? Is it a steady income? Figured it out? Great.

For me, (business) success means following my gut to create something game-changing while creating wealth and positive experiences for everyone involved.

(Nothing makes me smile harder than seeing our team successfully sell and implement our solution to a new client. Or to see it on the news. Or see it in action when I travel. Or see it make a difference to an organization. I always have to pinch myself every time and I hope thats always the case)

Once you are clear on your definition of business success…. go ahead and roll out a big red carpet for the stress and intensity that comes along with beginning that journey. It’s a roller coaster of wins, losses, ups, downs, and every emotion on the spectrum that you never even knew existed.

What your friends, family, and the world sees during the journey:

• Awards and Press

• Passionate Teams

• Wins and Big Contracts

• Travel

• Industry changing products

• Curated Social Media and Marketing

Behind the scenes of that journey:

• Tackling every day individually because no day is the same

• Digesting feedback, criticism, encouragement all at the same time

• Making over 1000 decisions a day, most of which no one has visibility to

• Analyzing future risks while handling day-to-day

• Building a strong team while ensuring they feel fulfilled and equipping them with the tools to succeed

• Failing, picking yourself up again and repeat

Is it incredibly exhausting and sometimes lonely? Absolutely. Would I change it for the world? Not a chance.

So, here is what it takes to be successful from my own lens:  

1)    Resilience: You will get knocked down. You will be told no. You will lose a contract. You will have to fight. You might not get the promotion, or raise. You might have to work late.   In order to be successful, you have to keep going.

2)    Ambition: You must constantly strive to be better, faster, stronger, and more skilled at what you do. Your competition isn’t sitting at home watching Netflix. Keep dreaming, pushing yourself, and making yourself better than the day before.

3)    Prioritization: You will have to manage and juggle multiple things at all hours of the day. If you don’t prioritize (and I mean daily), you won’t have enough time in the day to accomplish what you need and you will spend your time on areas that can wait.

4)    Be risky: You must be comfortable with being uncomfortable. You must push yourself a little farther than you want to, you must leap when sometimes you want to take a single step. You won’t get anywhere without taking risks and trusting yourself and those around you.

5)    Invest in yourself: You are human. You can’t lead and create if you are mentally and physically exhausted. Can you make it to the top by sprinting? Sure. Will you crash? Absolutely.

6)    Evolve: Being complacent will kill your success faster than taking a risk and failing.  Every single area in your business and in yourself must be a constant evolution. Evolve your product. Evolve your operations. Evolve your team. Evolve your mindset. Evolve your leadership skills. Evolve your brand.  The world moves fast, you have to as well.

Lastly, I will leave you with this…. I personally don’t believe that success is a set end point or a single moment you finally experience. I believe that real success is going along a journey to achieve the goals you initially envisioned, while allowing yourself to create future goals with a new definition of success along the way.

True success is an ongoing, ever-changing journey with a lot of moments along the way that bring you true happiness. And when you are truly happy, nothing can stop you from achieving those goals.