Three Ways to Avoid Success Traps

The ability to learn and adapt quickly is often critical to startup success. This is something every founder should know. That’s why I was a little caught off guard once when a founder I was working with told me that learning new things isn’t the hardest thing. Rather, he told me that the hardest thing was letting go of the things he had learned.

It was an interesting thought, but one that made a lot of sense. Even for startups that have achieved a certain level of success, there will come a point when the things you’ve learned no longer apply. When this happens, it becomes imperative to let go of what you’ve learned so you can focus on new learnings.

For entrepreneurs, it’s easy to look back and focus on past success. With hindsight being 20-20, you can always point out the things you’ve done right. Plus, who doesn’t enjoy focusing on the things we’ve done right and the great things we’ve achieved? It feels good to think about what you’ve done to overcome the odds and find startup success.

Unfortunately, startup leaders don’t always realize that this success can create a trap. Finding success doesn’t mean you can stop learning and changing. It also doesn’t mean that the lessons learned along the way will still be relevant moving forward.

This type of thinking can lead to a trap that prevents startups from achieving further growth and achieving further success. There are three ways that I advise founders to either avoid or overcome these success traps.

First, realize what’s holding you back. Don’t get hung up on the past goals you’ve achieved; think about the goals you still have yet to achieve. Why haven’t you reached them yet, or why aren’t you on the path to reaching them? Your current strategy may not be enough to get you there, so what’s missing?

Second, compare your benchmarks to other companies. How does your success compare to other startups at a similar stage? How did those companies change or grow at this stage? There’s nothing wrong with comparing yourself to other companies or imitating what they’ve done if it helps you avoid a success trap.

Finally, bring in outside help. This can mean new employees, new leadership, or outside coaches and consultants. Bring in people with experience and a fresh set of eyes who can help you find blind spots. Even if you’ve found success, you might have blind spots that are now holding you back from getting to the next level.

Once you find your blind spots and learn how to address them, it becomes much easier to free yourself from a success trap and move to the next stage. However, the only way to do this is to let go of your past success. As my client said, let go of what you’ve learned. That’s the only way to start learning the new things that will allow you to reach an even higher level of success.

I have helped guide over 50 startups during their scaling journey, including a few that have become unicorns. He’s also written a series of three manuals about the midstage journey.

Use the Series-Ready Scaling Blueprint from the Midstage Institute to create a 3-year roadmap for your startup that will align your team and get investors excited about your future.

With help from the Midstage Institute’s Crossroads tool, you can create a 12-month execution plan with clear goals and a detailed pathway.