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  • Goal of a Startup : Make things simple

    Vijay Anand
    1 reply
    There are four distinct ideas, that over the span of a few years have interconnected to paint a perspective. 1. Einstein famously said, "Everything Should Be Made as Simple as Possible, But Not Simpler". I've mulled over it from time to time, but never quite realized how profound it was. 2. Then I came across this art by Picasso, where he goes through the process of simplifying the visual representation of a bull. 3. Then there is the concept of how our thinking evolves, and we go through a process of divergence and convergence to arrive at resolutions, which iteratively improve our understanding of things and hence our ability to create/improve on systems. 4. Then there is the famous quote by Michaelangelo where he talks about the idea of being locked inside a stone, and for everything that is not the statue to be removed. I've put these thoughts together into a stream of thought here. Would love to hear your thoughts that might better my understanding of this.

    Replies

    Tatiana Kukova, PhD
    Hi Vijay! The thinking you are talking about I would call 'cognition' or 'cognitive thinking.' Interestingly, there is something else in the head of a start-up entrepreneur, which I call 'personal thought' or 'thinking about yourself.' What you think about yourself affects your entrepreneurial actions. The simple or the complex versions of the bull, in your example, do not contain personal thought. Despite that, personal thinking is always there, and you may notice how it works in other start-up founders, investors, members of the executive team, and other stakeholders. If interested in how this process operates in real-life entrepreneurs, I would recommend reading my book 'The Entrepreneur's Identity Standard' where I reveal what start-up founders think about themselves and how it influences their decision-making processes.