Pretend you’re a startup.
Startups grow faster than any other type of company by definition, because that’s their only chance to survive.
What if you copied the behavior of some of the best ones to grow faster than everyone around you?
Here are 10 ways to do it:
- Be an industry of one. The best startups are almost like monopolies, because they established a new industry altogether. Google defined the search industry, Facebook the social network industry & PayPal the digital payment industry. Do what no one else can do. Do something that’s new and that’s better than what’s out there.
- Move fast. Startups have neither time nor money, so ROI is everything. If something isn’t worth your time, don’t spend more on it. Speed is more important than perfection. Make mistakes, fail fast, move on.
- Break stuff. Doing something new means doing something a lot of people won’t like. Challenge old conventions. Napster pissed off a lot of people. But people liked music and people streamed videos. So they offered streaming music. Take two things, break them apart and put them back together. You’ll be the best at the combination.
- Ship every day. You can’t stop reinventing yourself. Ever. Not even for a day. A new thought, a new idea, a new experiment. Put it out there for the world to see. Share your journey with us. Facebook shipped a new feature every day for months.
- Embrace the Power Law. If you think you’re really good at ten things, it’ll be just two that make or break your career. Get even better at those two. Google makes over 80% of its revenue from ads. So they focus on ads.
- Create network effects. It’s better to be on Instagram if all of your friends are too. Make it better for people to know you than to not do so. Host events, introduce two people each day, always say “Hi.”
- KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid. Over 100 million people visit Quora every month, yet only ~130 people work here. You can only react fast if you’re lean and agile. Keep your life simple. Don’t buy a lot of stuff, don’t get sucked into other people’s drama, don’t be fancy. Be okay with the basics.
- Let your product do your marketing.This is code for: Work hard, be good, do the right thing. Your product is you. When you’re good at what you do, the word will spread. People will tell other people about you. Don’t take credit. Be the source. Stay honest. Do your best.
- Scale yourself. It’s easy for Dropbox to serve another user. All they have to pay is server costs. When you do something that helps people, don’t do it 25 times individually. Do it once, then put the solution online. Help people help themselves.
- Stick with what you know is true. Snapchat was right about 10-second videos that disappear. Even when everyone else thought they were stupid. Don’t let the world tell you what’s right. Listen to your gut. When you know something is true, insist on it.
All of these have the power to change your life, but only two will really work for you. Which two is up to you. I hope you’ll find them.
