We’re in a time of flux. A war is raging in Eastern Europe, the economy continues to teeter on a will-it-or-won’t-it recession, and unspeakable acts of violence overlap each other in the news. Inside company walls, layoffs are proliferating, stock prices are yoyoing, and companies are recalibrating their short-term plans to conserve runway and optimize for profitability.
Startups are well-positioned to not only survive but thrive during this moment. Good startups are resilient because they are adaptable; it’s the main advantage they have over lumbering incumbents like Google and Microsoft.
This adaptability is also what makes preplanning personal growth incredibly difficult. In startups, your personal growth is closely tied to company growth; as the company evolves, so will your role. For most of us, that’s exciting! That’s why we joined: to be a part of a company that still operated with unrelenting speed, no two days the same. But if you can’t predict what the company will look like in three months, or six months, or a year, you certainly can’t predict what your role will look like in that time.
If you can’t predict what the company will look like in three months, or six months, or a year, you certainly can’t predict what your role will look like in that time.
So here are my words of wisdom: When the going gets tough, screw growth. Fuhgettaboutit. Bracket those big questions about what a “you-shaped problem” is or what your resume bullets are going to be after X project; release yourself from navel-gazing exercises about your spikes and kryptonite. Just focus on the next ridgeline. What is the next project you need to crush? What are the top priorities for your next one, two, three months? Everything else is noise.
This is an especially useful exercise during your first year at startup, especially if you’re hitting the Valley of Doubt. It gives you something concrete to anchor on in places that can be remarkably fluid, with few external markers that you’re doing it right.
Here are some signs you may need to screw growth (for now):
You’re feeling confused about what your portfolio is “supposed” to look like
You’re constantly comparing yourself to others
You keep trying to map what you’re currently doing to a job at a “regular” company
I don’t mean to disparage the idea of growth entirely. Screwing growth does not mean pausing growth. It means pausing thinking about growth; it means giving yourself the freedom to temporarily quiet the part of your brain that nags, “What’s this all adding up to?!” But fret not: Growth will still happen! Growth is ALWAYS happening.
Screwing growth just means bracketing out doing the work from analyzing your growth path. Yes, it’s important to carve out opportunities throughout the year to zoom out, analyze what sparks joy (and what doesn’t), and evolve your portfolio accordingly. But often, we can only make sense of our growth paths in retrospect. Or, as Steve Jobs put it, “You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.”
Take me as an example. I’ve built a niche as an executive and internal comms specialist. But in my career, I’ve also redesigned websites, drafted talking points about thorny policy issues, managed crises, produced videos, and more. Not all of those things have a direct impact on my current portfolio; they might not even really make much sense together, at least at face value. But they’ve helped me gain credibility as a communicator and businessperson, and, through trial and error, to home in what I do love: working with executives to understand their voices and what makes them tick, building and managing corporate reputations, and righting the ship in a crisis.
You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. — Steve Jobs
I also don’t want to encourage you to slog through work that profoundly drains you. If you feel strongly that your current projects are wrong for you, or if you’re experiencing burnout, talk to your lead. Don’t be a martyr! But in my own experience, doing work that is valuable for your company is often more invigorating than fretting about exactly how a project will look on my resume or how it will help me get to the “next thing.” You have to build your story piece by piece, surge by surge, connecting the dots only in retrospect.