Founders face constant negativity. However, your greatest threat may not be market volatility, fierce competition, or funding challenges.
Instead, it may be how your brain processes these events and situations.
At the heart of this challenge lies negativity bias—a cognitive quirk that can silently sabotage your entrepreneurial journey without you realizing it.
This post explores how understanding these insights can help you build greater innovation and resilience in your startup journey.
Negativity Bias
Negativity bias occurs when two pieces of equal information are weighed, but the negative one carries far more impact than the positive
For instance, we fixate on one bad comment in an otherwise glowing review.
This bias makes us dwell on potential flaws, paralyzing our ability to act.
What’s the best way to respond to negativity bias?
Seek positive input from advisors, team, and experts. Record your triumphs.
Recognize and announce team accomplishments regularly.
Challenge and question the negative thoughts in your mind.
Negativity bias holds you back and must be actively countered.
More Reasons to Be Optimistic
Optimism is self-fulfilling: when you believe things can work out, you push yourself to find the optimal path.
While I don't advocate for blind optimism, I do believe that many crises create opportunities.
"Sometimes when you're in a dark place,
you think you've been buried,
but you've actually been planted."
— Christine Caine
When something terrible happens, you may not control its immediate impact, but you can control your response and outlook.
I once worked at a startup facing a 40% drop in revenue. When the founders suggested laying off half the team, I urged them instead to explore new client opportunities in different industries. (We were fortunate to have enough runway for six months.)
The pressure from this loss actually drove us to experiment more boldly. In addition to repurposing a number of roles, we also created an incentive plan: the team would share 10% of new business revenue above a set threshold, provided they maintained existing clients while bringing in new ones.
For the company, the plan threshold increased quarterly, with the goal of replacing lost revenue by year's end. For the team, the plan recognized their additional work and creativity.
The plan worked better than expected—we paid out the incentives for two quarters and ended the year with overall revenues slightly higher than the year before.
Many large companies today once emerged from a crisis. Some examples:
Instagram transformed from a confusing check-in app called Burbn to a photo-sharing platform that was acquired by Facebook for $1 billion.
YouTube shifted from an unpopular video-dating site to the world's most popular video-sharing platform.
Shopify evolved from an unsuccessful snowboarding equipment store to a leading e-commerce platform powering millions of online stores globally.
Shift Your Energy
Embrace the opportunity that optimism provides.
"Instead of worrying about what you cannot control,
shift your energy to what you can create."
— Roy T. Bennett
Optimism isn't naiveté—it's about maintaining control.
You can acknowledge setbacks, face challenges, and feel your emotions while still believing in a better future and working toward it.
Key Takeaway: By countering negativity bias while embracing optimism, startup founders can unlock new levels of innovation, resilience, and success in their journey.
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90% of startups fail. Build Scale Grow solves problems for fast-growing startups, specializing in Social Impact, EdTech, and Health Tech and focusing on Introverted Founders.
I wrote this post with AI editing.
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