In today’s coaching session my client, founder of a startup that received its first seed investment told me: “I feel like I'm all over the map. Yet I can’t see what is left or right of me. Drives me crazy." What he was describing as a paradox making him wonder whether he was losing his mind, is a common case of tunnel vision. In my coaching practice I have seen many founders - new founders in particular - mentally enter a state of combat. It’s an almost inevitable default mode: the burning desire to make it work, incredibly high levels of uncertainty, daily bugs to fix and the ticking time clock surmount in a strong cocktail of emotions. To cope with the number of real and self-imposed OKR’s, tunnel vision becomes a startup founder's new normal: zooming in on the target, blocking out anything happening on the periphery and losing the ability to see beyond. Like in a real combat situation those surrounding details can prove to be valuable and, in worst case, fatal if not spotted early. Intense focus is a go-to-strategy for startup founders, yet a better way is hiding in plain sight.
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