What do you do if your startup career is filled with change and uncertainty?

In a startup career filled with change and uncertainty, it's crucial to remain adaptable, proactive, and resilient. Keep learning, stay agile, and focus on problem-solving to navigate through the challenges and seize opportunities for growth.

Consider startup a coin with change as one side and uncertainity as the other. Embrace both and take this in your stride. Either you get used to this lifestyle or change it. If you can't then it is an unnecessary stress and you are better off working somewhere else.

As Bruce Lee once said: Be water. Be adaptable to your environment, industry, investors etc. Remember that when one choose a career in startups, change is a certainty. You don't know when it will come. But you're sure it will. So be prepared to adapt and change. Embrace it. Learn from it. And grow by it.

In a startup career marked by change and uncertainty, prioritize adaptability and continuous learning. Cultivate a strong network for support and guidance, seek mentorship from experienced professionals, and focus on delivering value to customers. Stay agile, resilient, and proactive in managing risks while remaining vigilant about industry trends and market dynamics.

It is important that you understand what are the top priorities of startup founder and try to align yourself with those priorities. If you are able to contribute in the core business of a startup in the manner in which co founders have thought of, it is going to bring big dividends for you. The best way to embark on this contribution journey is to get well connected with the founders cofounders or the immediate reporting managers and take constant feedbacks on your work. Each time you think and mold your working culture as per the feedback given. This is going to take you far in the journey and help your career.

In my view and personal experience working in startups after a sucessfull trajetory in traditional and stablished companies is the unique opportunity to expand your knowledge in areas way distinct from your main background. Maybe you come from an engineering background and then you may see opportunities to improve your skills on sales, marketing and operations. Also, you may expand your technical skills in different technologies and so on! The key is to have a open mindset to embrace all the opportunities that will appear! And, for sure, they will appear in a startup environment.

Managing time is of utmost importance in startup. The team is a small budget is small and milestones are quite frequent. In such a scenario it is important that you neither waste time nor the budget of your startup and put your energy focused on the next milestone. Hence managing time and energy is quite vital.

I see that "adaptability" is going to be key in the new era of working, where AI is going to massive impact how we work in the future. Then, working in a startup, may give lots of opportunities to learn, change, test and therefore, develop this ability. Even tough startups may fail and do not have sucess, the amount of learning you can bring to your career will pave the way for a brighter future

Working in a startup can give you good gain if in case the business of the startup is on upswing and hence you should focus on contributing to the business more and more. Moreover while you are contributing to the business you should also keep an eye on how rest of the things are going on in the business so that any red flag coming up at any point of time is able to give you an inclination when is the right time to quit from the startup.

One thing to continuously do is learn. Learn from previous experiences of your own and from the industry. Do the second order thinking. Try to experiment where your indiatry standards end. Just learn and research and try to start from where the others left of.

Uncertainties is everywhere and when you have a startup this brings risk for a safe future. Planning is key to design all the actions that need to be done and adjusted in order to compensate risks in uncertain environment. You need a général plan with milestones in the next months and if needed you can breakdown this plan in smaller action plans to be taken place in a shorter period of time. Also be flexible in order to adjust the plan and adapt your expansion plan according to the market environment. Be good also in developping trustful relationship with your environment putting your customer in the centre of your plan so as to keep customer satisfaction as a key priority in whatever you undertake.

You will have imposter syndrome or total self doubt when becoming a founder. It's rarely both, although some days will throw you for a loop. Talk to people who have been there and done it before you. Listen to their thoughts. Don't be the 'teenager know it all' - I say that with love. You want to succeed. Your friends and family want you to succeed. And mentors want to see you succeed. Stay focused on the product and what you need to do and have a great team surrounding you to worry about the rest of it. Notice that above I don't say to take all the advice given. You've got this. But let those who have done this before help guide and mold your actions for success. ??

Change and uncertainty are natural. How we embrace/react to them will determine how successful we are, and how soon. There is a fine line between perseverance and stubbornness. No one can tell you where it is. Ego can cause us to hold on to basic ideas too long. Mindset extends to those closest. If they criticise rather than critique, we may find ourselves dropping our best ideas. Some friends recently opened a food business. I see the main driver boldly trying out their ideas while the spouse hardly supports. It is causing tension in the marriage. I encourage them to hold the course and make decisive change when they know it is time. There are no right or wrong ideas/people at start up. We are learning and, hopefully, improving.

Embrace the Growth Mindset: See challenges as opportunities: Reframe obstacles as a chance to learn and adapt. Instead of fearing change, view it as a chance to grow your skills and push boundaries. Focus on learning: In a startup, you'll likely wear many hats. Embrace the chance to pick up new skills and become a well-rounded professional. Become Comfortable with Discomfort: Agility is key: Be prepared to pivot and adjust your approach as needed. Don't get hung up on a specific plan; focus on achieving the overall goal. Embrace calculated risks: Taking calculated risks is essential for innovation. Analyze potential downsides, but don't be afraid to step outside your comfort zone.

- Gratitude Practice: Regularly acknowledge and appreciate the positive aspects of your startup journey, such as opportunities for growth, learning experiences, and supportive colleagues. - Optimistic Outlook: Focus on potential solutions rather than dwelling on problems. Embrace challenges as opportunities for innovation and improvement. - Confidence Building: Celebrate your achievements and strengths. Remind yourself of past successes to boost confidence in your abilities to overcome obstacles. - Seek Mentorship: Connect with experienced individuals who can offer guidance, share insights, and provide perspective during challenging times. - Continuous Learning: Stay curious and open to acquiring new skills

Startup journey can never be smooth. Startup is an untravelled path. One need to understand the changing need of the industry and change accordingly. To adopt and adapt is necessity for the growth. Always seek feedback from the customers and work on that to modify as per the current need. Timely management of manpower time and thier energy will lead to successful change management for the startup. The future need of money and manpower in the business to be ascertained and worked accordingly. Success depands on the mindset which is flexible and ready to mould as per their need of time.

Uncertainty is a necessity in the business environment, whether in a StartUp or even a job. Keep an eye out for your StartUp's Competition and see how you are doing - Benchmarking is key and it's a good way to know how you can adapt / pivot for a brighter future

In the face of change and uncertainty in a startup career, leveraging a structured system, as recommended in ‘Peak Teams’, is vital. Acknowledge challenges as part of innovation. Implement regular strategic planning, feedback loops, and agile methodologies to adapt and learn swiftly. Use tools to keep your team aligned. This approach transforms obstacles into opportunities for growth, ensuring resilience and success on the unconventional path your startup takes.