The one reason why my startup could fail.
Want to know the one reason why my startup, Liip, could fail?
It’s me.
I’m the reason my startup could fail.
You probably didn’t think it would be that simple, but it is. One day I could decide to just stop.
Now, of course, I’m not planning on doing that, but a number of things could cause it to happen.
So instead of ignoring the possibility of one day giving up, here are all the reasons I can think of that would make quitting a reality. Others have called this the practice of Inversion or setting Anti-Goals. Thinking about the things you don’t want to happen, so you don’t end up there.
It’s about proactively thinking through what I can do to keep it going instead of being reactive and accepting whatever happens.
I’ve made this mistake many times before where I’ve started something, and then after a while, I’m no longer working on it and on to something else. A few of those projects were:
Ski wax company
Lifestyle magazine
Athleisure brand
Freelancer job board
Approval tracking SaaS app
And that’s not to say these were all good ideas, or I was equally excited about all of them. Most startups don’t pan out, so it was more than likely they wouldn’t either. But I could have been better about making more of an effort as some of them came to an end because I just stopped working on them.
So here are the things I can think of that would be why my current brand could fail and what I can do to prevent that from happening.
I get bored.
I need to think bigger. Or, at least, big enough. I’ve heard others say, and now I have enough experience to know, that you’ll spend as much time on a small thing as a big thing. So it’s better to pick the bigger thing with more potential upside. If not, I might find I put in a ton of time for what amounts to pretty much nothing. Now, of course, a bigger idea may be harder to get off the ground, and I end up with zero anyway. But I will have at least given myself the chance of a worthwhile outcome.
I think what’s happened to me is I’ve worked on opportunities I felt were safe. And by safe, I mean small enough that I wouldn’t really care if they failed. I wouldn’t have to suffer any consequences. But, because I never took any risk with them, I also never gave myself the chance of real success. I was always somewhere in the middle, and nothing remarkable happens in the middle. The middle is just like everything else.
When I’m working on things that I know don’t truly matter, I get bored and start looking for the next thing.
I start chasing the next thing.
The real reason most of my business ideas have failed is that I don’t let them get far enough along to find out if they were any good or not.
Instead, I do everything to get a business ready to launch, but then I don’t do anything with it. I’m already onto the next thing. Something I find more exciting or think is a better idea.
The problem, I’ve realized, is this is a strategy I use to protect myself from having to find out if my ideas are actually any good or not. By moving on, I don’t have to find out if people want and will pay for whatever I’m selling. Instead, I get the satisfaction of knowing I can build something without risking the possibility of it not being the success I think it could be.
The trouble, though, is by not launching these projects, I’ll never know if they could be successful or not because, effectively, none of them are. I don’t allow myself to find out.
So, instead of chasing the next thing, I need to make sure the idea is big enough to keep things exciting and commit to at least launching projects, so I get real feedback.
I burn out.
What usually happens, though, is I don’t consciously decide I’ll stop working on one project and move on to the next one. No. What usually happens is I’ll just add another thing to everything else I’m already doing.
Which, obviously, I know doesn’t work, and I’d tell anyone else trying to do too much that they have to pick one or two things to focus on, and that’s it.
For whatever reason, though, I think I’m different, and this advice doesn’t apply to me.
So, what really happens is I’ll have all of these things I’m “working” on but not getting anything done. I end up being fake productive and working on things that don’t move the projects forward, and eventually, I burn out. I feel like I’m putting in all this effort but not seeing any progress. Then, once that hits, I have a hard time staying motivated, and I stop working as hard because my work doesn’t produce any results.
I have to realize, though, that it’s not that I’m not putting in enough effort. It’s that the effort is spread across too many things. I’m able to give them enough attention to stay alive but not enough to thrive. And instead of asking for help, I try and double down and do more by myself. Which is usually fine for a bit, but I only have so much time available, and it’s only a matter of time until I can’t sustain the pace I’ve gotten to.
I try to do everything myself.
If I’m truly being honest with myself about why my projects fail, it’s that I think I have to do everything myself.
And what I really need to do is learn how to delegate. To let go and be ok with someone else doing something 80% as good as I think I can. And you know what, there are going to be many things other people can do 100% better than I can if I just ask for help and let them do it.
I’m getting there, and I’m starting to see the value in having other people around with different skill sets that free me up to work on the things I’m good at and let them do what they’re good at. But it’s hard. It’s hard to give up control when I’m so used to doing things my way.
I think I’ve been so adamant about doing things myself because I want to know how everything works.
If I know how it works, even if I’m not the best at it, I can at least understand whatever needs to be done. This way, I can talk from a place of experience with whoever is doing it instead of having to guess or leave it entirely up to them. So, it’s good and bad, but without recognizing this is how I think, I make it easy to fall into the trap of getting tired and chasing the next thing when I run into something I don’t know how to do.
Simple, but not always easy.
Really, while there are many reasons why my startup could fail, it all comes down to one. And that’s me. It’s entirely up to me whether I’ll keep working on something or not. And the way to make sure I can see things through is to only work on ideas worth pursuing, not be distracted by new ideas, focus on one thing at a time, and ask for help before I need it.
It’s simple, but it’s not always easy.
Want to know how I got out of my own way and finally figured out how to see things through? I detail everything in my 5-Day Brand Bootcamp.
The Brand Bootcamp is a 5-day, self-paced email course guiding you step-by-step through validating an idea, designing your brand, and getting your first sales.
Full of tools, tactics, templates, and strategies, you’ll learn what’s worth worrying about now, what you can figure out later, and how to effortlessly make decisions as you continue building your brand.
