

Starting a company? Learn from religions. - terio
http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/04/science_and_faiths

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GiraffeNecktie
Could someone please explain what this article offers for someone starting a
company? I didn't see anything remotely useful or interesting.

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terio
The article offers “a few tips on how to attract and retain followers, thus
ensuring that your gospel spreads far and wide”. Although the tips are
presented as recommendations for somebody starting a religion, the important
part is that they are based on recent studies about the brain quirks that
produce religions or at least enable them. I find some of those tips are also
useful for startup founders, especially when creating a team of “believers”
and keeping it focused on the goals. For example, traumatic rites of passage
which are either painful or scary seem to be good generators of cohesiveness.
Whether by intention or by the nature of the process, startups engage in this
practice: YC forces applicants to take a leap of faith and relocate; founders
work interminable hours in not very healthy conditions; some startups adopt
some kind of initiation. Other good tips are to keep preaching the doctrine,
and to allow dissent to a certain degree. Having recently read “Delivering
Happiness” by Tony Hsieh, Zappos’ CEO, I could not avoid making some
connections between the book and this article. Of course, you have to read the
article with the right light o see them.

