What does it take to maintain humility when your startup succeeds? How can you avoid self-sabotage right before crossing the finish line?
Knowing how to handle success is just as crucial as knowing how to build a business. Scott Belsky’s The Messy Middle provides insights on maintaining poise and good judgment when your venture approaches its final stages.
Keep reading to discover practical strategies for managing success, staying humble, and preparing for your next chapter.
How to Handle Success
As difficult as the meandering journey of growing your startup can be, achieving success at the end of that road presents an entirely new set of difficulties. As you near your original goal, you’ll have to work not to jump to the finish too soon, be mindful of your own mental state, and conclude your project with humility and poise. In The Messy Middle, Belsky offers advice on how to handle success with grace and good sense.
Belsky says the first thing to do when rushing toward a project’s end is slow down. Perhaps you’re about to bring a product to market, or maybe a large corporation has offered to buy your startup for a healthy sum. It’s here that Belsky stresses the importance of seeking guidance. Even experienced leaders can feel like novices when navigating the complexities of finishing a venture, and the skills that served you well in the beginning may no longer apply in this phase. Therefore, enlist a few trusted advisers, break down decisions into simple questions, and try hard not to rush through making important choices.
(Shortform note: The changes that hit you at the end of a project go beyond the technical complexities Belsky describes—there are many emotional hurdles as well. In Life Is in the Transitions, Bruce Feiler writes that you’ll see yourself as a different person than before this major change in your life, as you integrate the experience into your life story. In addition to coping with the complicated feelings or bringing a major part of your life to a close, you’ll also have to decide on your next steps. In the wake of change, you’ll have to let your old habits and priorities die and replace them with new ones that align with your current reality.)
You must also watch out for psychological hurdles that can arise as a project nears completion. Some entrepreneurs may unintentionally sabotage the success of their business if they don’t feel worthy of it. Others give in to ego, which is also detrimental if you start ignoring feedback or anger the members of your team. Belsky writes that you should strive to stay humble as you achieve success, reminding yourself of the role your team played in getting you there, as well as remembering any lucky breaks you had along the way. However, don’t forget to affirm the hard work you and your team put in over the years. The road to success is a hard one, and everyone involved deserves the rewards, including yourself as the founder.
| Credit Where Credit’s Due It may seem counterintuitive that anyone would act counter to their own success right at the end of their journey, but Belsky insists that it happens, and in The Now Habit, Neil A. Fiore explains why. People fear success because they’re afraid they’ll alienate their friends and colleagues, they worry about the major life changes success can bring, and they fear that success will raise others’ expectations to the point they can’t be met. They may even fear that success will change them in the way Belsky describes—into an egocentric person not worthy of the pride of accomplishment. You can proactively counter the latter outcome and maintain the sense of humility Belsky praises by adopting a habit of recognizing others’ importance. In The Magic of Thinking Big, David J. Schwartz lists this as one of the key mindsets that let you lead people effectively. If you acknowledge other people’s importance—and go out of your way to make them feel important—they’ll work harder for you, cooperate more, and offer more help as you near the finish line. Show sincere appreciation and recognize that accomplishments are the result of team effort. |
The End, for Better or Worse
Most of all, Belsky says, if your project’s truly over, whether you’ve succeeded or failed, it’s important to go out on a graceful note. If you didn’t succeed as planned, decide how you can learn from the experience. If you feel lost about what to do next, remind yourself that your identity isn’t defined by your work—a mindset that’s crucial for personal well-being regardless of how much success you enjoy. And if your dreams of success do come true, recognize that your journey isn’t over. A satisfying end to an entrepreneurial venture involves being content with your accomplishments while also being ready to embrace new challenges.
| Bounce Back From Failure Success in entrepreneurship is far from guaranteed, no matter how hard you work or follow Belsky’s principles. However, before you even begin, consider whether how you define success might be setting you up for failure. In Anatomy of a Breakthrough, Adam Alter states that many of our concepts of success are too extreme, such as becoming a millionaire or winning major awards. Setting more realistic expectations means success will be hard but achievable. However, what characterizes even those people we perceive as great successes is how they build upon failure and adjust their courses of action. Alter explains that failure makes you re-examine your approach and try new strategies to reach your goals. If you never fail and question yourself, then you don’t push yourself, and you become blind to opportunities that can only be found by straying from the easy path. If you fail too often, then maybe your goals really are too ambitious—but if you don’t fail at all, you’re not stretching to meet your potential. Therefore, don’t beat yourself up when you fail. Simply look at what happened, figure out what it can teach you, and jump back into the drawn-out process that Belsky lays out for success. |
Exercise
- Think about a time when one of your projects ended. How did you transition to the next stage of your life or your career?
- Think about your current project. How do you imagine you’ll react once it ends?
