Do you have 5 Startup traits? Test with an Unplanned Trip

Travel freaks are gifted with exploring and risk taking spirit, and they keep inspiring people. Startup founders create enterprises with the same spirit and inspiration.

Friday October 27, 2017 , 7 min Read

It is an established fact that Travel teaches us a lot about life, after all Life is nothing but just a journey from birth to death.

Startups and Travelers (not Tourists) are similar in so many ways, both are instantaneous decision makers

Humans display same nature with little manipulations in every situation or circumstances. Therefore, your travel pattern may easily provide you an insight about your attitude towards your professional and leadership decisions.

You would be living your life journey in the same manner as you would prefer to live on any trip or excursion. There are several ways of living a life for all of us, similarly there are different forms of traveling.

Most of the people are followers and want to play safe in life. They follow the same pattern while travelling, where they want everything safely arranged in advance; such people are termed as Tourists (not Travelers)

Tourist and Traveler Analogy

Aaah, what did we just said? Tourists, NOT travelers.....how is that different? Well the crux of this post revolves around this basic differentiation between a tourist and a traveler. So first of all, let’s understand the difference between a tourist and a traveler

We can quickly feel that distinction with the help of the image shown below.

Picture Credit: www.holidify.com

Tourist:

Some basic habits or traits of a normal tourist are: -

(1) Prefers to get all reservations and arrangements done prior to the journey

(2) Avoid tough treks or remote locations

(3) Takes care of luxury & comfort during journey

(4) Sticks very religiously to safe budget options and puts at least 40% funds for safety reason.

(5) Generally visits famous locations or travel itineraries.

(6) Takes long time to plan a trip, usually need lot of push or force to go for a trip

Traveler:

Some basic habits or traits of a Traveler are: -

(1) Comfortable in prior reservations or instant arrangements, as per the journey needs

(2) Choose adventure locations or less traveled places

(3) Enjoys the journey with available resources and finds comfort in available facilities (even in a tent)

(4) Don't overthink about budget and manages budget on-the-go efficiently, while following his heart to travel places.

(5) Visits places less traveled, prefer off-beat locations, less crowded and off-season timings

(6) Always ready to take a trip, coz he loves traveling

The crux of the above discussion is that if you want to live the journey of your life as a Startup, you need to take the Traveler road. You can never create a Startup by taking a tourist road.

So, if you want to test yourself as a Startup material go for an unplanned trip. An unplanned trip will take you through all the experiences of a traveler and you will be able to test the water yourself.

Just get away from the regular life, go to any remote location without plan and test whether you enjoy such a journey. Keep everything unplanned (Duration | Budget | Places | People), just ask random people whom you want to include in your journey and get going.

You can only plan the beginning of a Startup journey similar to an unplanned trip

1. Living and handling the Uncertainty

Startup journey is full of unexpected surprises and you have to deal with them happily every single day. It requires lot of passion and patience to face such situations and you can only withstand them if you are programmed like a Startup soul.

An unplanned trip would help you a lot to give a rehearsal of such situations, because you will face a lot of similar situations in such a trip. You would not be having any arrangements in advance and no information or knowledge about the place.

You would be on your own to explore the best options for accommodation, food and travel. You would not be aware about the expenses coming forward in your journey. You have to take care of your future journey while enjoying the current journey.

If you are able to withstand these situations happily in an unplanned excursion, you are born to explore. You have the passion, love and courage to follow your heart and you can be rest assured that you would bravely face the tough challenges of a Startup ecosystem.

2. Passion & Patience

Startup journey is tough, no sorry...it is very tough. It is not a fantasy league of generating investments. It is about creating solutions without losing hope and expecting a positive finish.

It is so similar in such a trip, where you get exhausted and short of money as the travel progresses. You start feeling low sometimes due to lack of facilities and arrangements, but if you still manage to extend your journey to new heights and destinations you are passionate.

Remember, Startup journey is so tough that after a certain limit anyone is bound to lose Patience. At that time, it is your passion towards your goal that drives you through the remaining journey.

Try to find that hidden passion and test your patience levels in this trip, which would be only as long and as enjoyable as much as your patience and passion allows.

3. Team / Leadership Skills

Startup founders need to handle people with ultimate skill. They are expected to work hard like every other team member and also perform the role of a Leader.

You have to test the same skills among your unplanned trip group members, wherein you have to enjoy and keep moving with every other member. Still if you manage to lead from the front in terms of managing arrangements, resource planning and decision making....you can pat your back for having required team & leadership skills required to be a Startup Founder

P.S. Startup founder or CEO is one the toughest job profile on this planet

4. Effective management skills

Ask any Startup founder you know, and the biggest challenge for him is lack of funds & resources. This means that forget about saving, you need more than what you have and you cannot stop the journey. You have to get the bus moving whether you have fuel in your pocket or not.

You will face the same situation in an unplanned trip. Remember that you are on a trip and therefore enjoyment would be your top priority, but you have not planned number of places and number of days. Therefore you cannot enjoy without effectively managing your expenses and travel itinerary.

5. Enjoying the journey without Rewards

You are a lone traveler in Startup, there are no colleagues or friends around you. You will not receive any appreciation from the society as well. So, you will not have any rewards for a very long time in your Startup career but you still have to move.

Steve Jobs once said that if I would have not loved what I do, I could have not survived the journey since it gets very hard.

Hope you people might have seen the Hollywood movie "Everest". There's a scene showing a New Zealand climber reaching on the top of the Everest and announcing his achievement to the world. There was none to hear him, but he was not worried about the world. He did it for his dreams and satisfaction.

Conclusion

If you find yourself crazy on the nth level in this unplanned trip, be rest assured that you have the Startup founder virus within your blood and sweat. You have all the guts, wits, passion and patience to travel the Startup road of your life.

Go ahead, explore the problems around you and try to find a solution for the same. Try to find solutions for your beneficiary and pour all the energy that you applied in your trip. Remember that success is not guaranteed, but the traveler will keep on moving BECAUSE