Failures don’t kill a startup. Mediocrity does.

In this era of startup boom, majority of the startups have been entangled in the web of mediocrity. They neither fail, nor do they grow beyond a certain level. While failure delivers a definitive result and success is a state which lacks any definition, growth is the only positive option that remains.

For a startup to remain active, one either needs a slanted growth wave or a sine wave with its fair share of ups and downs. It’s the plateau’d wave that kills the lot.

So let’s just say you have a startup and have reached its plateau stage. What do you do?

One. You take a major disruptive decision and stand in faith of where it takes you. Failure or growth, atleast its much better than the zombie state you were in.

Two. If indecisive as to what the next step should be, ask for help. There’s a huge community of mentors and established industry names out there who would be more than glad to share their bits and pieces of wisdom with you. Utilize that. While you might be at the crossroads to choose between Path A and Path B, you just might be shown the third path hidden among the bushes. It’s wisdom of experience that identifies the path there; something we presently lack as startup entrepreneurs.

The web of mediocrity is pretty cunning. Under its hood, there lies a false sense of success, which, at many a times, blinds the entrepreneur into a deceptive state of belief that “All is Well”.

So, if you are a startup entrepreneur and have the feeling that all’s been good for quite sometime, stop and retrospect.

• Has the startup been on its right path the last few months?
• Is the long term financial structure seen as escalating and not stagnant?
• Is the team cohesive on the vision of the startup?
• Do you have a survival strategy if your competitor swallows the market within a month?

Ask yourself these questions and find out where you stand – Are you climbing the slope of growth or laying stagnant on the mediocrity plateau.