How to Pick the Right Team for your Startup

Building the right team for your startup is a critical step for building a strong organization. The success or failure of your startup depends a great deal on your team that you have set up for your organization. Before you start taking huge and monumental steps towards building a new team, here are some things which you should keep in mind while making your team selection and the mistakes you should avoid committing while building your way up.

Prior Experience

It is very well understood that a team with startup experience has an advantage over its other competitors in the market. In case your team members have zero experience, it sure becomes more challenging to overcome all those obstacles which come in the way of a startup’s success. Having specific experience in a niche is definitely more helpful and can make a huge difference in enhancing the overall productivity. Hiring someone with zero experience in your industry could be a reason for holding your team back to super success.

Focusing on the Next Step

Whoever you hire today is surely going to be kind of a magnet for your future employees. A strong team today will be the reason for other talented people to join your organization. Select your people carefully and wisely, keeping in mind a couple of things. People who simply consider your job as 9 to 5 won’t be a good fit. Instead, you need people who are highly focused on their goals and to bring laurels for the company. Always avoid highly egoistic people and those who keep on bragging falsely about themselves throughout the interview. Also, learn to recognize the shaky ones who appear under-confident about performing in the long run and are not sure about their career priorities.

Talent

In the initial stages of any startup, each and every individual team member’s skill matter a lot and can make a huge difference. Later on, when the startup has reached a later stage and attained maturity, the company culture becomes bigger than any individual team member.

Another thing which holds a lot of importance is the presence of team members with knowledge of multiple skills. Your team should be able to wear multiple hats for taking care of various issues. Having people who can solve different kinds of problems at the same time can prove to be miraculous for the business.

There is no Substitute for Passion

Your team members and you should all be on the same page. You need a team which shares your passion for making your startup venture a grand success. They should be able to see their future in your startup so that they don’t leave any stone unturned for making it successful. They should see getting to change the world through their success in your business. In case they are not passionate, they will simply treat your passion just like another job and you can be assured that you won’t like that.

Two Sides of the same Coin

You should be able to welcome critique and disagreement at the same time, as that is what makes the company a better place than yesterday. Look out for people who have the same work ethics, priorities and think the same way about adaptation. False and meaningless egos are the biggest vices and they ruin a team spirit completely. Do not let that happen in your team and do not get offended about trivial things which do not matter in the long run. You should bring in such people in your team who can complement your skills and at the same time also fill your weaknesses.

Company Culture and Vision

Company culture is not just about having a treadmill or the provision of playing a game. It also means inculcating a positive environment which results in a productive ecosystem while encouraging new ideas and creative thinking. This is how a rich company culture is developed. You, as a business owner definitely have long term plans for your organization. However, what about your team members? You will have to make sure that your team members are not thinking about a three-month stint with the company and instead, they share a long-term vision with you for the company.

Lessons from The Matrix

When The Matrix movie released in 1999, it amazed everyone with its special effects. It’s one those movies which you can watch over and over again. Every time you watch it, it reminds you of the strong concepts of life lying behind the action. I’ve seen it a few times and if you haven’t seen it then you are seriously missing out those mind-blowing concepts. Keanu Reeves is at his finest, powerful, brooding, vulnerable and the ultimate hero. But more than the actors, actions or special effects, it gives us a powerful message.

What You Believe Becomes Your Reality

Neo chose to see the true world rather than what he believes it to be. His discoveries shocked him and changed him for forever. Everything he believes to be true comes out to be an illusion which kept him away from understanding the true powers that already existed in him.

The reality is a reflection of what you believe that means if you change what you believe, you can change your reality. Miracles do happen if you change your way of thinking and starts to believe that you are the creator of your own destiny. Anyone who ever tried something new chose to believe it is possible to do. As they say, anything that you truly put your mind to you can achieve.

There’s Always Something New to Learn

In The Matrix movie, Neo and others update their mind by computer programming. They learned how to fly helicopters, learned martial arts and everything they need to learn to create a difference. Though we are not that modern yet to plug ourselves into a super computer so as to update our programming but by new ways of thinking, by learning new skills and just like Neo with regular practice and training, can create a new foundation of your life. Everyone has a gift of his own, you will never get to know what’s yours if you don’t take a chance by pushing your boundaries to learn something new.

The Road Less Travelled is Less Travelled for a Reason

Neo was in a group of brave people, brave enough to accept the truth of the world and are well aware of the fact they cannot return to their comfortable and safe world. Though one of them regret choosing the red pill and betrayed them.

When you step outside your comfort zone and understands that there’s more to life than you think, you will find people who will laugh at you and will reject you. Remember, we all have to leave some people behind in order to follow our own destiny. There’s a reason behind the road less travelled for being less travelled. You have to believe that there’s something more than current reality and must take action to be a part of different future.

You Can Achieve What You Believe

Neo was terrified when he first discovered the truth about the world. Everything he knew or thought about the life turned out to be a lie.  You can only believe and trust yourself. And when you start connecting with yourself, then only you begin to realize that you are capable of achieving more things than you have so far. When Neo started to learn, he discovered that power of his body is nothing as compared to the power of his mind. His mind was capable of pushing him beyond the limits that he has accepted as his own. And after starting to believe in himself, he was able to push himself beyond the limits and opened up to a world of possibilities he previously never imagined.

All it takes is to believe. When you visualize the things, you want, believe in the power of your mind and open your mind to the possibility that you can have it, then you are on the road to creating it. As they always say- “Whatever the mind of the man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”  Perhaps like Neo, you too will find your belief, your inner strength and discover the world full of possibilities you never knew existed.

Do it Already

As Morpheus tells Neo-What are you waiting for? You are faster than this. Stop trying to hit me and hit me.

If you have some goal without giving an excuse, aim for it and go get it. Stop being sorry for yourself and the things you don’t have. Take necessary actions to achieve that goal because life is too short for crying and making excuses. And remember Actions speak louder than words and sooner or later you’re going to realize that there’s a difference between walking the path and knowing the path.

Reasons to Step Outside Your Comfort Zone

The “comfort zone” is a psychological concept that helps you to embrace the risk and make changes which lead to personal growth. It’s a behavioral space which minimizes risk and stress. There’s always a sense of familiarity, certainty and security in it. While stepping outside your comfort zone, you take risks which may lead to anxiety and stress. Though stress is always considered as bad but little bit of healthy stress can act as a catalyst which provides a powerful motivation to act and hence you lead to growth.

Stepping out of comfort zone can lead to the creation of the conditions for an optimal performance, whereas staying in it only results in steady and consistent performance. Those who step out of their comfort zone and are willing to take risks will reap the biggest rewards in this increasingly competitive, accelerated and cautious world. Here’s why you need to step outside our comfort zones.

It’s hard to let it go because you’re wired to seek out for comfort

Staying in your comfort zone isn’t wrong unless you’re too comfortable in it and don’t want to challenge yourself to grow, earn and try new things. Your comfort zone is your neutral state- where anxiety and stress are minimal and you know what’s coming next. Sometime to achieve goals, you have to push ourselves out of your comfort zones whether you want it or not. Stepping out is as good as being able to get back in. 

Challenges help you to perform at your peak

For one’s personal growth, stepping outside of comfort zone is an almost universal and important factor. How can you expect to evolve in your careers and lives if you keep on sticking to your normal routine and habits? A little anxiety and involvement of risks can help you to perform better than you usually do- or you can say, challenging yourselves, tends to your rise to the occasion.

Risk taking tendency helps you to grow

Children, the natural risk-takes, learn the fear of failure with time and hence stops attempting different things when become old, leading to the tremendous potential loss in their growth and transformation. Fear of failure is a powerful obstacle to growth. It prevents experimentation and exploration assuring progressive narrowing of the personality. It’s a simple logic: Keep Learning = Keep Risking Failure.

Trying something new makes you creative

Trying something new or different changes your perspective. You see things which you previously ignored or missed, which creates new possibilities. It helps you to break the monotony of your routine and changes your biorhythm- stimulating and jolting you emotionally, physically and intellectually. You can progress by maintaining the habit of trying something new and can learn to be open to new experiences, change and possibilities. Increased confidence, appreciation for yourself, progress, openness to experience are some of the results of trying new things.

But don’t push yourself too far

To grow you need fear, that’s human nature. To grow constantly you need to push yourself constantly to the brink of hurt, exhaustion and fatigue. If you are always in a process of trying to grow, you are equally as afraid as someone who afraid to start. You push yourself to grow only because you are afraid of fear of failure and want to get rid of it. The main purpose is to expand our comfort zone. Comfort to C-O-M-F-O-R-T. There’s no purpose of it if you can’t sit and enjoy the growth you have gathered so far. That’s why if you can’t be grateful right now, you must stop focusing on making future plans. So, sit look around, look at yourself and your thoughts. This is how you laugh with it, live with it and laugh at it. And it will ask you to transcend yourself once again.

Life Lessons from Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones, the best know sitcom for its near omnipresent nudity and surprise beheading has much more than this. Next to stinging betrayals and white walkers, it got deeper morals often fall to the wayside- hiding behind every bastard and white walkers. Here are important life lessons that Game of Thrones taught us: 

Life isn’t perfect

Every fantasy we ever heard about focus heavily on “happily ever after” but that’s not with Game of Thrones. George Raymond Richard Martin’s story is exciting, epic but most importantly it’s realistic. No, I’m not talking about the giants, mammoths or three-eyed raven. I meant the storyline- unfolding of the things. In real life, things often don’t turn out as expected. We never know what’s going to happen next, and this is what perfectly portrayed in GOT. Life is always full of twist and turns, as in GOT good guys often die whereas bad boys often triumph. GOT is clearly unidealized, renouncing the monotony and predictable journey of the stereotypical hero and telling a tale based so on realism.

It doesn’t matter what people think

Game of Thrones is filled with characters who for some reason or the other seen as inferior- Jon the bastard, Tyrion the dwarf, Brienne the beauty, Bran the broken and so on. Despite these labels, none of them are held back. They wear their weaknesses as a badge of pride. Brienne devotes herself to the art of combat, Bran embraces his strength as a warg and Tyrion… well, as he says, “Never forget what you are, the rest of the world will not. Wear it like an Armor and it can never be used to hurt you.”

It’s all about where you’re standing

Game of Thrones tells a single story through the eyes of many characters, which reveals the impact of one’s upbringing and culture on a person’s worldview. For most of Westeros, Wildings maybe savages but for Jon Snow and Mance Rayder, they’re simply spirited people who love freedom. As ice and fire are different from each other so as the perspective of different people for different things- but all are valid. Expanding your own point of view will help you to see the world more objectively and become more understanding of others.

Understand others and have compassion towards them

Snap judgment about others is easy to make. When someone says something offensive or acts in an irritating way, rather than trying to understand the reason behind, we tend to attribute this behavior to bad character. In Game of Thrones, on regular basis, multiple characters make poor decisions, yet we can empathize with them because we know why they acted as they do. This WHY is what that’s often missing in our daily life. Why did your friend say that to you? Why did that car cut you off? When WHY is missing from the scenario, we tend to create that person’s image as bad. But through George R.R. Martin, we see the world from multiple perspectives, understanding why certain characters act the way they do. 

As far as cruelty or carelessness is concerned, they can certainly help to create a more constructive mindset with more understanding and less concerned with judgment and to build empathy. From afar, Theon may seem cruel and selfish, but Martin shows us the events that brought him to that place- became hostage at ten, went unloved by the Starks, and return to a family which is indifferent to his existence. With this scenario, his actions are understandable although nor excusable. In a similar way, Cersei’s behavior can be explained through her love for her children, Jamie’s through his love for Cersei and Stannis’s through his unhappy childhood. This unexpurgated view into the lives of characters allows more compassion towards those who might otherwise be labeled as “bad guys.”

Make every moment count

Valar Morghulis. All men must die. Game of Thrones demonstrates that nobody can remain untouched by death, it comes for everyone from innocent children to noble lords. Being an upstanding citizen doesn’t make you immortal. Death will come for us all, whether as an overly aged body or an accidental misstep on a roof. It could be tomorrow or could be ninety years, so while alive make every moment count. Be grateful, spend time with loved ones and do what you love, because as George relentlessly shows, any moment could be your last.

Significance of Customer Experience

Have you ever wondered why customers are so important for your business? The answer is quite simple and straightforward. Happy and satisfied customers mean more visits to your website, more brand engagement, an increase in retention rate and ultimately more revenue for your business. It doesn’t much effort to provide a sincere, friendly and effective customer service and the benefits associated with it are countless.

Providing extraordinary customer service gives an edge over other competitors to a business and is at the heart of the success of any successful business. The fact is that to over-deliver to a customer considered to be the most valuable asset to any business. Here are few reasons which make quality customer service so significant for any business and in fact more critical than any other factor in a business:

Benefit for Marketing

When you proudly display that you offer top notch customer service in your promotional messages, advertisements, social media and so forth, you greatly benefit your brand and increase its marketability. Social media also plays a helpful role in promoting this. Quality customer service brings in more customers. This kind of message is worth all the efforts required to go about it and to bring in required positive marketing message to your intended audience.   

Builds Trust

Trust is quite important in new businesses. When customers use a brand for the first time, they need to be assured of the reliability and that they are buying from the right place. A top notch customer service can suffice that. A mutually trusted relationship is always long lasting and will be beneficial for your business in the long run.

Employees with thorough knowledge about the products/services and who consider customers to be the top most priority are always appreciated. It is very much understood that in this highly competitive world with a myriad of choice available in the market, you have to win the trust of your customers and retain them for converting them into loyal brand advocates and who stick to your brand.

Gets People Talking

When customers get the attention they truly deserve for taking care of the woes they face, they remember it and speak about their experience to others too. This is great for word-of-mouth marketing and it proves that the sooner a customer is up and running after facing some issues while dealing with your services, the faster it plays the role of an impetus for his raving about the kind of quality customer service they got from your brand.

In fact, people pay more attention to what their family, friends or peers have to say about a brand rather than an advertisement on the television or in the newspaper. This helps to create an excellent reputation in the market. You should not miss the opportunity to create brand advocates and loyal customers out of your present clientele, who will surely champion your business if they are satisfied with the kind of customer service you provide them with.

It conveys your Strong Values in Company’s Mission

Taking good care of your business speaks volumes about your company.  It conveys a strong set of moral values your company follows to achieve its mission/vision. Working merely for profits or revenue without putting any human touch in your policies will not go a long way for your company. Instead, inculcate deeper desire to build something of value and to put your best efforts for helping your customers sincerely.

Competitive Advantage

A company can differentiate itself from others by offering superior quality customer service. Statistics reveal that offering top notch customer service is found to be more effective than lower prices. If you don’t provide the expected level of customer service, someone else will. There is little doubt in the fact that you must be having countless competitors within your niche who offer the same nature of product/services as you. How do you stand out from others? The solution is as simple as that – provide superior customer services which result in creating loyal brand ambassadors.

Elongates the Life of your Business

When you don’t fulfill the needs of your customers, you invite failure, especially for startups. If you do that, you are cutting short the potential for longevity of your business. Companies that go out of their way for the customers definitely have an advantage and become successful in the long run, as it is the customer who is the core of your business and your business revolves around them. Without them, there is no business at all and your business ceases to exist.

 Increases Employee Retention

Treating your customers well also resonates in a positive way with your employees. If they find that the company treats their customers well and goes out of their way for helping them out and addressing their concerns, employees also feel proud to be a part of the team with a sense of accomplishment. In contrary to all of this, this has a totally adverse effect if the employees find that they are being taught to be oblivious to customer grievances.