4 Essentials For A Successful Startup Journey

Find your Ikigai

It’s long been said that launching and sustaining a successful startup is a marathon, not a sprint.

More accurately, it’s a long-distance relay race -- a shared journey in which each team member works toward a common purpose, bringing to bear their own unique skill sets, perspectives, and life experiences. 

Indeed, a startup’s employees are its most valuable assets. But whether you’ll be able to inspire the best in them hinges on whether the company’s leaders can successfully instill a mindset that empowers the organization at every level. 

These four leadership tips can help your company go the distance.

The people of Japan know a thing or two about longevity, with a life expectancy at birth of more than 84 years and more than 80,000 centenarians. Diet, exercise, and quality healthcare go a long way toward explaining this – but it’s important not to overlook the influence of cultural ideas like Ikigai.

Derived from the Japanese words for “life” and “reason,” Ikigai, a term that originated on the southern island of Okinawa, is one’s life purpose. Imbued with a deep sense of meaning and mission, Japanese who adhere to the concept of Ikigai emphasize the importance of leading a rich and fulfilling life well into one’s golden years. 

Startup founders can benefit immensely from these teachings.  Entrepreneurs often work backward from an overarching goal – capitalizing on the growing need for insurance technology, say – without anchoring that goal in a clear sense of purpose. When I co-founded my insurtech startup YuLife, my team knew that to stand out in this increasingly crowded vertical, we needed to be driven by a meaningful mission. In our case, our Ikigai was to promote wellbeing by helping people lead happier, healthier lives. The way to do it was to build a life insurance company that incentivizes and rewards policyholders for taking positive steps to improve their own health and wellbeing.

The clearer a sense you have of what your business’s Ikigai is, the likelier you’ll be to identify and recruit talent that shares your vision, and the more effective you’ll be in inspiring your team to meet its mission.

Having an Ikigai is also essential to have a concrete understanding of what problems your ideal customers are facing and how your business will help overcome them.

While every startup founder is convinced that the market needs their product or service even if the market doesn’t know it yet, there’s a big difference between eliminating a speed bump and removing a road barrier. Put another way, even if the industry pain point you seek to solve is a real one, it needs to be significant enough that a sufficient number of customers see your value-add and are willing to pay for your offering. 

This is the stage of your startup’s journey where you’ll need the insights of professionals with deep industry experience and expertise. If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you and your co-founders are Big Idea people. But to actually execute on those ideas, you need skilled experts with the experience and know-how to truly illuminate the opportunities and challenges your potential customers are confronting.

When my co-founders and I were preparing to launch YuLife, we knew our company’s Ikigai: We wanted to inspire wellbeing. We also knew that the insurance industry was in need of change and that traditional life insurance policies were failing to meaningfully engage customers. But how could we match our vision and the market’s needs?  We found the answer in gamification – an approach that applies gaming principles to encourage greater engagement. Our team found that when people could track their diet and exercise via a gamified app, they were more motivated to stick to healthy habits – thereby earning rewards for their lifestyle improvements.

The takeaway? Once you’ve settled on your overarching mission, look for areas of untapped opportunity, and seize them.

While evolving market needs and emerging opportunities may require your business to shift its focus and pivot to new offerings, the purpose-driven mentality that guides your team along its journey should be a constant.

Amazon may be a very different company than it was when Jeff Bezos founded it as an online bookstore a quarter century ago, but its underlying vision – greater choice and more efficient deliveries for consumers – remains the same. 

But you don’t need to be the next Amazon to find your company on the path to success. A little Japanese philosophy and a solid relay team can go a long way.