Everything's On Fire...Every Day!

If this title scares you, then you shouldn't launch a startup.

The main difference between a startup and a small business is the former has professionals funding it and is concerned with long-term growth and viability. It's the quest to go big or go home.

This means there is a higher chance of success and more resources for founders to call upon. Great right? Yes indeed! But inversely, this also means there is a higher amount of pressure and accountability at which to perform.

And perform you must. Why? Because the numbers are against you. 90% of startups fail. And a lot of times that has to do with you the founding team.

The leaders. You.

A true startup is no longer just you and your college roommate kicking around ideas. You've moved from ideation to execution and you've committed by leaving your day job. Yes. You can't do well working full time as an employee and launch a startup at the same time. This is part of the spark of entrepreneurship. The risk/reward factor. Like a flint set to the flame.

This pressure is one reason why I love what I do. In fact, the phrase I repeated most in 2018 when friends asked how my startup was going: “It's going... everything is on fire every day...and I love it!”

If you're going to lead a startup you need to seriously be OK with things falling apart every month. This applies to business ownership as well. Especially if you and your partners pile your own pressure on yourselves.

Great leaders are the ones who can thrive in the midst of the fire.

In fact, according to a small study Forbes conducted on key traits of successful startups, it's all about recovery. The study mentioned, “teams that are able to recover together, also possess the unique trait of harmoniously working together through [fires].”

How I've learned to create this harmony with my team(s) is to take ownership of failures, especially when it's not your own. Because that's when it's the hardest to be humble. But that's when your team is looking most intently at what you'll do next.

After a fire occurs great leaders will listen first, are slow to speak, and always motivate their team to run head-on towards the challenge, no matter how demoralized and angry they are at the heat, the burns, and the scars.

Let me give you an example. In my previous startup, we worked for 15 months to develop our first brand and the first product we planned to bring to market. After months of planning, dozens of team meetings, numerous trips to meet with our manufacturer, a handful of QA check-ins, and hundreds of daily scrums, we were set to launch a proof of concept via Amazon's Seller Central marketplace on May 9th, 2018.

The team was stoked, investors excited, and our crew of homies ready to support the effort! We had to garner reviews through Vine, the early review program and of course organically with friends and family. Our strategy was: cast a wide net and comply 100% with Amazon's new more strict review guidelines. Let's Go!

So we did just that. Rolled our sleeves up, took people to coffee, and made phone calls to old friends, cousins, and colleagues. And just 30 days after our long-awaited launch, we were able to garner a good amount of 4-star verified purchase reviews by the end of May. We did it. We established an organic baseline of low-cost reviews that should support initial sales efforts.

What we didn't know is that the old giant was on the move. And between our launch and June 22nd, Amazon was planning to take down over 1.2 million reviews.

So, just 43 days after our pilot launch,13 days after we received a good amount of reviews, even after a little team celebration with Pizza and La Croix, Amazon struck down on us with the vengeance of the old White Whale himself!

Our reviews, all completely copacetic, were gone. Omitted. And the icing on the cake. Our account...kaput.

And although we operated above board, and complied with Amazon's requirements, we were shut down.

The next day, I came and looked on in astonishment after my Distribution Manager told me what had happened. The fire blazed.

After seeing my team's faces, I knew they needed encouragement. We all did. Why? Failure is hard. Especially when it's out of your control. Kind of like a fire right? But I knew something was bound to happen because, in the world of entrepreneurship and startups, everything is on fire, every day. Having this mentality, and being ready for a fire has really helped me push through the hardest challenges.

And it's not just for leaders to step up. The difference between an entrepreneur and an employee is how you react and rise to overcome the massive hurdle in front of you. How you support your leaders and communicate the plan to solve the issue with the team.

In the end, I've learned that after the celebration always comes the challenge, often the fire. If you're going to succeed, you can't get comfortable with a win. Be ready to push through. Every single day.

Just like a group of Rhinos forms a crash, you and your team need to push through trials together. It's what creates the momentum you need to crash through the biggest of barriers. That's why they call it a Crash of Rhinos and not a Group, herd, or whatever.

The more startups I invest in, the more I launch, the more I research I do, the more I read, the more I meet with fellow Founders, the more I listen to How I Built This. The more I see there is no one way to start something without failure; without fire. But it's the way we lead our people out of the fire that makes the difference.

Braven Greenelsh. As a serial entrepreneur, investor and executive leader, Braven's expertise is creating brands and businesses that flourish. Leveraging over fifteen years of experience as a partner to scores of tech startups and enterprise-level corporations, his unique skill set offers value-add to any institutional fund, holding company or brand that needs to get a company launched. Throughout his career, he's been afforded the privilege to work with brands like FOX Studios, Sony Pictures, On Assignment, IAC, Discovery Channel, Toyota, Lincoln Motor Company, Omnicom, Intuit, Yahoo!, WME | IMG, and Billabong. This is also posted on Medium.

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