“If everything seems under control, you are not moving fast enough”

I don’t think most people push hard enough for what they want. Me included. But at the most recent startup I worked at, I had a founder who showed me what pushing hard actually looks like for the first time. And what he understood as pushing hard enough is so counterintuitive to what people normally think that I’d like to share it here.

He only thought we had pushed hard enough when things started breaking. Meaning the first negative reactions from the world came as a result of us pushing hard.

This could be a candidate dropping out of the recruiting process because we moved too fast, a GDPR complaint coming in after reaching out to too many prospects, or an annoyed sales prospect after we called him for the third time in one day.

Then our founder would take the time to say:
“Hey look, this is exactly what I expect from you.”

Meaning he recognized that we gave our all to make something happen. He understood that giving our all is expected to result in some negative backlash, which is far outweighed by the positive results the effort creates.

Instead of fearing negative reactions like most people do, he saw them as a positive signal rather than something to avoid. Most people do the opposite. They take this as a reason not to push harder at all, because they want to avoid that very reaction.

There are, however, some general conditions that need to be met before someone is allowed to push as hard as possible. You should have the best intentions in mind for the people you are interacting with and still put in the right effort to provoke as little negative reaction as possible while still fully pursuing your goal. In short, what I said is no excuse to start spamming people with stuff that nobody needs.

You want to get to know Cologne’s startup scene and meet like-minded people? The Entrepreneurs Club Cologne is hosting an open welcome event on April 23 at 7 PM.

You’ll get a quick intro to what the club does, how you can get involved, and meet the team as well as other motivated students — all in a relaxed atmosphere (including Kölsch 😉).

It’s free to join, just grab a ticket here and come by.

It’s a great read on scientifically proven ways to work more productively and get more done in less time. Definitely changed how I work..

How to Claim: Be the first to send me a note with some feedback at [email protected] and I’ll send it your way.

💌 Love it!

👍 It’s okay

💢 Not Great