The Art of War for Startup - Chapter II: The Campaign

Pour la version Fran?aise, voir : https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/lart-de-la-guerre-pour-startup-chapitre-ii-campagne-delsol-phd/

For the Chapter I of the Art of War for Startup, please see the following article : https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/art-war-startup-chapter-i-planning-benjamin-delsol-phd/

Life is War!

A war can last for a long time, and the longer it will last, the more prosperous your Startup will be.

First let all of us be agree on one thing, while a military war can end with the victory of one of the parties, the war for a startup will never end if not by the death of the startup.

Indeed, it is important to understand that the war for a startup is a constant war, without break, without rest and made of many battles.

With each new development, each new marketing campaign, each new approach to a prospect, a battle will take place between you and the rest of your ecosystem.

Every action you make will cause your ecosystem to react. This reaction will generally be proportional to the action taken.

As a result, the war will never cease as long as the Startup wishes to exist.

Also, this second chapter aims to prepare you for this campaign leading your startup from victories to victories until the rest of the warrior, hopefully in many many years, after an incalculable number of battles won.

War is hell and to survive, to go through hell, there is only one thing to do, keep moving forward.

Knowing this, you feel waking up in you the warrior, the warrior who is ready for all of this and who will even take pleasure in facing all these battles. A Startup must have the spirit of a warrior to overcome the difficulties that await it.

Now that you are motivated, I will address you some basic rules that will allow you to survive these battles and to rise up when certain battles will not be won.

 The war will come to you :

The first thing you need to be aware of is that whatever you do, whoever you are and regardless of the amount of money available, the war will always be at the door of your Startup.

There is no refuge, no pause, no break in this war, stop advancing is dying. The enemy will always be on the lookout for the slightest opportunity to strike. Also, it is important to start this war in a spirit not of victim but of actor of your own destiny.

You will have to learn not to react to events but to act in order to generate events.

Each event includes an actor and a spectator, it is up to you to decide whether you want to undergo war or waging war. For make no mistake, the enemies are so numerous that even if some hesitate, the others will have no trouble attacking you.

So be the actor of your war and not its spectator, its victim.

Of course, you must not seek war, but you must prepare for it. You don't have to look for conflicts, you have to anticipate them because they will come to you anyway. As winter follows in the fall, don't be surprised to learn that battles follow every step of a Startup on the field of its ecosystem.

Your customers are not infinite, if they buy you a product, it means that they will not spend that money on your competitor, even indirect. Every action is followed by a reaction, you cannot hope to prosper and hope that your competitors will remain nicely and quietly in their corner.

Action-Reaction! It's up to you to choose which side you want to be on.

Have the spirit of the warrior :

In an endless war, the important thing is not really your strike force, because once a battle is won, another will immediately take its place, the important thing is your stamina, your perseverance, your ability to get up even though you are on the ground having lost a battle, it is this will that leads the Startup to victory.

You have to understand that it is you who decide when the war is over. It's up to you to rise for one more round. Finally, it is always the one who is willing to die that goes to win. As a samurai whose soul is already ready to join the other world, you must have the determination, the will and the perseverance to hold one round more than the opponent.

This is where your mind will make all the difference. Yes this mind that determines the first place of a podium, this mind that makes the difference between life and death, this mind that defines the type of person that you are, the type of Startup that one is.

It is appropriate that the Leader of the Startup has a steel mind, able to withstand the stress and to hold up the defeats, because there will be.

The mind of the Leader must also inspire his team and build the mind of the Startup. It is usually a reflection of the mind of the Leader. So it must be the one of a fighter.

With such a mind, when a battle is lost, the Startup will be able to rise and learn a lesson from this failure.

When you are waging a war, you can only lose it when you decide to give up, even if the failures accumulate or follow, as long as the Startup is rinsing up, then it can’t lost the war.

Never give up never surrender, only with this mindset, the Startup will be able to express its full potential.

 Be constantly on the move :

Often the Startup starts with an innovative idea, concentrates its efforts on the development of this idea, its protection sometimes, and especially its marketing. But as time goes by, the Startup stops innovating.

It seems that the world of startups is imbued with a misconception that a startup is a single idea.

This is not so, a Startup must constantly reinvent itself, innovate, and meet new needs that its consumers or future consumers have.

Innovating for a startup is breathing, without it, the startup can’t live.

Also, it is necessary to involve a dynamism to the Startup, to your team. Indeed, one of the first concepts of survival that one learns concerns the fact to always make decisions and to set always a goal to achieve even though this one may seem small.

Act creates movement and movement creates energy within the Startup.

Achieving a goal creates a satisfaction, a joy, big or small but it is nonetheless a positive feeling invaded the Startup with every kind of victories.

The Leader must be able to exploit each of these victories to strengthen the mind of the troops.

In war, a moving target is always harder to harm !

 Organize your supplies :

Based on the fact that an endless war awaits you, it is worth evaluating your supplies but mainly your ability to refuel them in time. Indeed, the supply that you have at the start of the war of the Startup is not limitless and one day or the other it will be empty. It is therefore necessary to constantly be looking for supply points.

In the field of startups, this can, for example, take the form of a constant search for innovation in the broad sense of the word, a technological innovation, but also marketing or even social one.

As mentioned earlier, when a startup ceases to innovate, it starts to wither because on the one hand innovation is the movement and on the other hand innovation is the main source of supply for a startup.

In fact, the Startup has no reason to exist but innovation.

This solution, these values that you want to bring to your customers, transmit to your prospects, have for foundation innovation.

Originally, when the idea made “POP” into your mind, it was in response to a need that you had detected. Indeed, the idea is to propose something different, new and smart in other words something innovative and that responds to a need.

For a Startup the management of its innovation is paramount because with the innovation comes the financing, the monopoly and the tactical domination of the market.

Your heart is your strength :

What gives strength to a Startup is its heart, the values for which it fights every day, this thing that it wants to bring to the world, this team that it wants to protect. Never neglect the heart of your startup and to do this, you need to identify this spark that prompted you to want to create your startup; This spark that lit up your mind that one day and that have guided you since towards reading this text; you have to keep preciously, and share this unique feeling triggering all these actions.

It is this feeling, generator of your actions, that must remain protected and share within the Startup. This feeling will be the seed of your will, of your perseverance, of your determination.

Remember why you do what you do.

Back to basics is sometimes the best way to remember who we are, why we do what we do and why we are where we are.

Know how to establish in your team a relationship of sharing this feeling, this feeling of making a contribution to the world, this feeling of actually belonging to a team with a common goal, this feeling of being a part of something bigger than us.

Do not hesitate to have a war cry because after all your team It's your army!

Therefore, you need to place your Startup in a positive dynamic. Each member of your team must feel involved and feel that they are a member of the Startup and not just an employee.

So, by sharing your vision, your team will give its best to achieve the goals of the Startup.

In the midst of battle, it is this feeling that will align the heart of the team with the goals of victory of the Startup. In this dynamic, each member of your team will be willing to do anything to protect the Startup and allow it to be victorious. And when the failure strikes at the door of the Startup, each member of the team will be ready to assume his share of responsibility, to learn from this failure and to continue the fight!

One team, one heart!

Get your Startup body :

An important aspect to not neglect is the body of the Startup. A heart without a body can’t live. The body is the team of course, but more fundamentally it is in the proper sense the body of each member of this team.

In order to hold up many battles, physical and mental resources must be available to endure an endless war. Physical resources go through an optimized lifestyle, both on the nutritional level and also in physical activity.

Know how to eat balanced and bring essential nutrients to your body. Know how to consume products of good quality and in reasonable quantity.

Know how to exert yourself, through sports activities. The practice of physical activities in the morning, midday or evening will bring you the necessary energy.

I recommend a light activity in the morning to oxygenate and wake up the body and the brain after a restful night's sleep.

Then the midday, an activity quite sustained to recharge yours batteries for the afternoon.

Finally, a light activity in the evening oriented towards the relaxation of the organism in order to relieve the stress of the day.

You should also know how to relax your body, as a relaxed body leads to a serene spirit, and a serene spirit leads to a clear vision of the battlefield. The practice of a few minutes a day of meditation is recommended.

So have a regular practice of a sporting activity but also of a creative activity in order to generate both from the inside and from the outside a dynamism, a movement, an energy.

For example, learn to draw, this will allow you to more easily represent your thoughts in addition to relaxing your mind.

Taking care of your Startup is first taking care of yourself.

 Your secret weapon :

Another advice I would like to give you in order to sustain a long war is never to put something for tomorrow that can be done today, because the key to victory in all is based on only one word: DISCIPLINE.

In life, in a war, suffering will always be present, it is necessary however to choose its suffering. We can suffer because of our regrets or suffer because of our discipline.

But guess which of these two sufferings will lead you to success? 

Discipline is what makes an army work, which allows it to carry out offensives, which allows it to be victorious.

Be disciplined towards yourself and you will be able to be disciplined with your Startup and your team.

A way of imposing a discipline can go through the development of an early morning routine or even by setting up daily physical activities.

Developing your discipline is essential to your success and that of your Startup.

Discipline is your greatest ally!

To close this second chapter, I would like to tell you something. A Startup is only the projection of its Leader and of its team. There is a fractal effect between the mindset of the leader, the one of the team and finally the one of the Startup.

As a Leader you show the example to your team, and this gives life to the Startup.

So be proud of you, if you find yourself in the midst of war, be proud of yourself, because you had the courage to go so far, the sequel is only easier, hold on, after the winters spring comes, every time.

And above all, never forget: No Pain no Gain!

See you next month for Chapter III : https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/art-war-startup-chapter-iii-offensive-strategy-benjamin-delsol-phd/