Transitioning from Corporate to Startup Life !

Is it a Big Move ? Can you grow while being comfortable?

What is the Comfort Zone in Psychology? Sai Damini Sahu

“The comfort zone is a behavioral state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviors to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk.”

Moving from corporate to?startup?may seem daunting. For years you have been used to the traditional corporate ways and immersing in a new, shiny, and uncertain world has its own challenges and rewards.

To learn and grow, we must leave the comfort zone and step into the Growth Zone. If you’re itching for action and planning to joining a startup after careers in Corporates - there are several important factors that you need to take into consideration.

All growth starts at the end of your comfort zone. - Tony Robbins

Having covered the what, why, and how of leaving your comfort zone, we must try to do the followings:

Do everyday things differently, Expand your professional skillset. Try a new diet. Take workouts to the next level. Get creative. Challenge your beliefs. Practice honesty, and Adopt a Growth Mindset.

Recognizing opportunities to leave the comfort zone isn’t always easy; neither is seizing them with conviction. It’s crucial to cultivate a mindset that lays strong foundations, paving the way toward the growth zone. This includes seeing yourself as inherently adaptable, reframing stress, and believing in your ability to endure fears and doubts.

When leaving the comfort zone, fear doesn’t always equate to being in the panic zone. As the below diagram shows, fear can be a necessary step en route to the learning and growth zones:

Aside from enhancing performance, there are plenty of benefits of leaving the comfort zone i.e., Self-actualization, Development of a growth mindset, Resilience and antifragility, and Greater self-efficacy.

My Experience (2nd week) at Data Safeguard Inc.

Coming from the corporate world, it was a big shift to adjust to the lean, agile way that startups operate. Working here, I’ve learned to challenge myself to prioritize my focus on the most pressing problems and creatively tackle them with the limited resources available to me.

I always tell people (during my Startup Mentor at Startup Odisha and Startup India) that this is some sort of “business parenthood”, your startup becomes your baby, and every decision you make has a tangible impact on its future.

The most exciting thing about working here is how much autonomy and agency I have. When I notice something at the company that can be done differently, I am given the freedom to execute my idea and I can very clearly see the direct impacts of my work on the organization and that keeps me motivated to do my part in bringing Polymath to the next level.

In the Startup World, YOU matter. Working in a startup also means you have to pick up the pace and get used to uncertainty. Startups are always experimenting with new ideas, new ways of doing things, nothing is set in stone. It almost feels like you’re driving a train in a tunnel, on tracks that are being built as you go, you will have to work at a frantic rate to make sure the train has enough tracks to keep moving forward.

We are hungry for autonomy, speedy decisions, fewer meetings, more innovation, etc. I don’t mean to scare people away from considering joining a startup but I want people to come with the right mindset that it’ll require to unlearn so they can be ready to learn the startup ways.

So you may not be as comfortable as you were with your “cog-in-the-wheel” place in the corporate machine, but you just might get a bigger sense of satisfaction from what you’re doing each day.

?"The best strategy to transition and succeed at a startup is to be humble and assume you can’t bring the toolbox and tools you’ve been assembling for the last decade. You’ll need a new toolbox and you’ll acquire new tools as you go."

Thank You ?? Data Safeguard Inc. and Data Safeguarders Sudhir Sahu Elliott Lowen Lee Nocon Pradeepta Mishra Praful Parekh Swarnam Dash Sumeet Shah Anish Vijayanand

#startupcommunity #startuplife #DataSafeguard #DataPrivacy #FutureOfWork