I'm an avid sports fan, so this won't be last time you hear a sports analogy from me.
There's a popular saying in the NFL (American Football for you non-U.S. readers) that states players need to have "amnesia" during each game. In other words, they need to quickly forget what happened on the last play, remove their emotions, and recall their original training and instincts to perform as best as possible on the next play. After the game there is plenty of time to evaluate performance - but trying to do this in-game is competitive suicide.
When LinkedIn rang the bell on their wildly successful IPO two months ago, their employees were given T-shirts with "LNKD" pasted across the front (their new ticker symbol), and the words "NEXT PLAY" written on the back. As CEO Jeff Weiner explained to BusinessWeek, the point was "to make sure people don’t spend too much time celebrating a great outcome or lamenting a poor outcome."
We all know startups are hard, and that to succeed you need to JFDI in the face of failure, doubt and criticism literally every freaking day. But it's just as important to brush off success as well. When swaths of users start opening their wallets and investors start stalking you (GOD WILLING!), it's easy to forget about the "NEXT PLAY."
Just remember - there are 4 quarters in a football game, 16 games in a season, and if you're lucky, many seasons in a career. "Startup Amnesia" can be good - for both success and failure alike.
This post was written by Jonathan Greechan - Partner at the Founder Institute, TheFunded.com, and Producer of the Founder Showcase. Follow him on Twitter at @jonnystartup.
