The Art of War for Startup - Chapter IX: Decisions

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

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

Life is War!

In any war, there are decisions to make and sometimes even to make quickly. In this new chapter, I propose some keys for effective and relevant decision-making.

The following 7 keys will serve as benchmarks in your decision making, regularly refer to them when you have to make a decisions :

• Open your mind!
• Master your emotions!
• Be honest!
• Be yourself!
• Keep your goals in mind!
• Success – Failure: treat these two imposters in the same way!
• Self-evolve!

• Open your mind:

In order to make a decision, you need to collect useful and effective information regarding this decision. When the decision concerns the whole startup, it may be very useful to collect data from the team members when they are concerned with this decision. For example, if the decision concerns the next innovations that the startup wishes to develop, it is essential to discuss with the R&D department to gather their views on this topic. Likewise, external advice is generally recommended in order to increase the objectivity of the information collected.

Gathering information does not mean either being overwhelmed with information or even taking what you are told for granted. It is important to know how to skillfully treat the information collected in order to assess its relevance and to be able to weigh it during your decision-making.

Know how to listen while still considering your opinion. Remember that it is always easy to provide advice when you are not concerned. Take your personal opinion and then confront the information collected after weighting.

Remember that you do not know everything but that you are in control!

• Master your emotions:

The information collected must be considered objectively and impartially. It is out of the question to make a professional decision on the basis of a reaction or an emotional opinion.

You must consider the inner biases of your spirits and be able to compensate them consciously. You must know the sources of this information in order to be weighted according to an index of emotion specific to the source of the information.

In the end, you must always rely on concrete and tangible facts to make your decision and thus make sure that the heart counts in this decision only through the values that this decision tends to defend.

It's not personal, it’s business!

• Be honest:

You will only be able to make a decision effectively if you know yourself and have already identified your strengths and weaknesses. It is important in decision making to know its flaws and talents, because whether we want it or not, the aspects of our personality, successes, failures, accidents, joys, everything that makes us, come into account. The weighting of these elements may be more or less important. That is why you need to know yourself to take these biases into account.

Knowing oneself also means accepting the truth about yourself and being honest in order not to obscure a defect, because if it is obscured it is particularly difficult for you to accept and will therefore have an important weight in your decisions making.

Look in the mirror and accept what you see!

• Be yourself:

After accepting who you are, there can be no question of being someone else... Indeed, a classic mistake in a decision-making is based on wanting to delight others in a conscious way as in an unconscious way. It is tantamount to not being oneself and making a decision that is not necessarily in agreement with who we are.

You must keep in mind the "why" of the actions that led you to this decision, this "why" it is you, your "why" is more powerful than your “will” because it is implemented even if you do not think about it, or believe not think about it.

Identify your "why" and make your decision accordingly!

• Keep your goals in mind:

Knowing your "why", you have your guideline, you know what you are going to. However, to make a decision is like sailing in the midst of a storm and keeping its course can become difficult.

You must at this time keep in mind your final goal, your destination and you have to ask yourself if the decision you think to make will lead you towards this goal or not...

If you don't keep your “why” and destination in mind, you may lose yourself. Stay on track whatever happens.

Don't confuse movement with progress!

• Success – Failure : treat these two imposters in the same way:

Understand that on this planet things do not remain static. A success one day can be followed by a failure the next day. Keep in mind that success as failure are only steps towards your goal, do not fear any of these two imposters. Treat these two frauds in the same way.

In your decision making, do not seek to collect success and reject on others failure. Understand that only your “why” and your destination are to take into account.

Success and failure are just the two sides of the same coin!

Self-evolve:

Do not be afraid, understand that the decision you are going to take, if it respects your why, your values and keeps the course to your destination, your goal, then it is a good decision even though this one scares you.

You must surpass your fears, but also your internal bias that we have talked about before. Paradoxically it is by knowing all the biases that are your own that you can most easily make decisions or even listen to your instincts at some point.

Indeed, instinct is only a cognitive process whose mind is not conscious, it is a result generated without the process being understood, nevertheless, this process can be extremely effective when all the bias have been identified and better still eliminated.

So have confidence in yourself and go beyond!

Making a decision is never simple, but it is essential to master the art of decision making as it is the basis for achieving your goal.

In the field of survival, he is advising to always make a decision, good or bad, it can only be better than not deciding anything.

In life, in business, it is often the same.

Making a decision is better than not making it, because generally, if you do not decide, someone will do it for you.

So please remember the advices presented in this chapter in order to make your decisions much easier and to keep them aligned with your values, your “why” and yours goals.

If necessary, I stay at your disposal with my masterclass on the art of decision making which follows my Masterclass regarding the art of setting goals and the art of staying focused on them.

If you do not decide, someone will do it for you.

I'll find you very soon for the chapter X.