

Confronting the Brutal Facts of Your Startup’s Reality - rguzman
http://blog.idonethis.com/post/22121837117/confronting-the-brutal-facts-of-your-startups-reality

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pbreit
I hate to be the one to do this, but: "Reply to an evening email reminder with
what you did that day. The next day, get a digest with what everyone has
done."

Is that it? $3/head/month? This does not sound "fundable" to me.

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luxpir
Brutal truth is the right way for me, a lone founder, freelancing and
struggling to find time to push the startup forward.

I've tried a lot of things to stay productive (1), and I've learned I can't
control my motivation, but I can pick some low-hanging fruit to get me back
into it.

Project Persistence started today, with the idea being to work at least an
extra hour on pushing non-freelance goals forward and not breaking the chain.
Hard without a physical calendar to cross off the days, but I prefer to try
without to build a new habit.

(1) - RescueTime, todo/reminders, lists, pomodoro, stickK, other forms of
accountability etc. - haven't tried idonethis yet, not sold on the extra time
investment's roi.

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anon01
This is literally the most motivating thing that has happened to me in almost
a year. Short, sweet, and describes my exact situation. I'm glad to hear it's
not just me.

I get motivated when I am able to accomplish goals.

I get demotivated when the owners sell me on a pitch that they asked my advice
on creating. When I tell the truth about our product's technical status, I am
being difficult and not a team player. When I sugar coat things, I am yelled
at when the product isn't what they hype it to be.

That is demotivation. Instead, just let smart people build your product.

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dkrich
Not sure I understand the difference between motivating employees and not
demotivating them. What makes employees motivated or demotivated?

If I work for a company that makes it clear that hard work is rewarded, then I
will be a motivated employee. If it seems that I will be in the same role ten
years from now or the path forward is unclear, then I will likely be
demotivated. In either case, my productivity level is an effect of motivation.

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brc
The takeaway for me is that work, and good workers are inherently self
motivating. There isn't much more you can do to motivate a good worker working
on something they want to do.

However, there is much you can do to demotivate someone.

So it's like this : there is limited upside to motivating someone because
they're working at or near 'total motivation'. However, they can fall from
there to 'zero motivation'. Any given management decision to that person has a
greater chance of demotivating them than motivating them.

I have been through something similar recently myself. I have been working for
a startup which is nearing launch - on a part-time basis. I was motivated to
get it over the line and quite happy to pitch in extra to do so. However, a
key manager in the project decided to switch everything around in the interest
of 'getting it done faster'. This demotivated me to the point where I actually
stopped working on it.

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dkrich
Right, I get that creating incentives like bonuses won't get hard workers to
work harder, but my point is that a worker's "total motivation" is something
that is within the employer's control, if you count work environment,
schedules, type of work, etc. to be within the employer's control. So while it
may not be necessary to create direct incentive programs, to me, not
demotivating somebody is exactly the same as motivating them, but it is being
treated as if it is a special case. Treating workers well is a way of
motivating them. Not treating them well is a way of demotivating them. If you
don't do one you do the other, so it isn't sufficient to say "you don't have
to motivate people, just don't demotivate them."

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jmathai
A great start of a blog post. Though I have to say I was hoping for more once
I reached the end! Are there any other pieces on this topic that all of us
trying to start a company run into?

