Quick, what’s the first thing that pops into your mind when you hear, “startup”? If you’re picturing Jesse Eisenberg sitting in a dorm room with his peers working on Facebook, then you’re on the right track but (sorry to say) you’re in the wrong lane.

The startup environment is a fast-paced, high risk, high reward, intensely modern way of doing business and startups build the future economy. If people want to succeed in this type of environment, you must adopt a psychological way of thinking, called the startup mindset.

Adopting some of the ideas and characteristics of a startup can help you to flourish in a complex world. Creativity, flexibility, collaboration, and an appetite for calculated risk can all give you an edge as you grow your business.

Whether you want to change the world or make the best bread in the neighbourhood, thinking like a startup can help you to thrive. Here we share how you can adopt a startup mindset in your business or life.

The 5 key features of a startup mindset

Creativity: When it comes to startups, curiosity cannot kill the cat. The ultimate goal of a successful startup is to create a new reality.  When you unleash the power of creativity in your field of work, you say yes to opportunities. Schedule time in your week for creative sessions with your team, to rethink strategies and processes to infuse a creative spark in your normal day-to-day practises.

Think Fast: It is not enough to simply keep up, you have to forge new paths and to do that you have to be fast. Great ideas executed early makes startups highly effective. Adopting a startup mentality in large companies can be challenging. But when there are opportunities to cut through bureaucratic processes to roll with a concept, you’ll see firsthand the speed at which solutions can be found. Don’t be afraid of decisions. Assign ownership to people and let them make decisions independently. You want to avoid typical corporate situations where 800 people need to give their input and everyone is hesitant to make the call.

Forget about the status quo: Creativity at a fast pace is fantastic, but if you really want to want to push boundaries within your business, you must reframe, “the way things are done”. Do not let preestablished processes or norms dictate business strategies. Many companies imagine new ideas based off an existing ‘old reality’. By doing this, you create an extension or simple improvements of an existing idea, instead of creating fundamental changes. If we take the current reality as the starting point for change and improvement, then at most, we can reach a new reality which is only slightly better than the old one, ie. a slightly better product or slightly better service, but not a fundamentally different one. Read more about this here.

Teamwork really does make the dream work: Startups are usually small teams that grow together, but that does not take away the importance of a collaborative team. Businesses across all spectrums look for innovative ways to get people to talk with each other more. They set up pop up stations, create work events and other gatherings to encourage the joining of spirits. The best way to create work synergy is to bring diverse people together for a common cause.

Take Risks: To have a high-risk appetite is difficult when there is something to lose, but there can also be a lot to gain. In fast-paced business environments, it is riskier to stick to the status quo than to reinvent the norm. Develop a culture of calculated risks in your departments and watch them take chances to grow.

Do you use these methods in your life or business? Find out more about PR for your business and how this benefits your business here.