Startups should embrace being consciously image-unconscious

「意識高い系」(roughly, “the consciously image-conscious type”)

The phrase usually describes someone who fusses over every detail, who picks branded or fashionable items even for small throwaway tools, who eats lunch at high-toned cafes, who invests heavily in self-improvement, cultural refinement, and even health with intense interest and self-awareness, and who

does nothing at all to hide any of it

but instead flaunts it, practically preening.

That’s what it means, I think. And the character trait that naturally comes attached to it is something like “brimming with confidence, sailing smoothly.”

I especially want people in startups to be the opposite: the “consciously image-unconscious” type. That doesn’t mean giving up branded goods, or settling for cup noodles at lunch, or writing code instead of “wasting time” on self-improvement.

What I want to touch on here is mainly the mentality side of things, and specifically the story rooted in

stumbling, which is inseparable from startups.

“Learning through validation,” a concept often invoked in lean startup thinking, isn’t limited to early-stage startups. For any organization taking on uncertain challenges, it’s essentially mandatory — a baptismal gate you have to pass through. But learning is, more often than not, accompanied by pain and setbacks. And in that moment, the “image-conscious” type thinks:

“This isn’t how it was supposed to go.”

The “image-unconscious” type, though, is fine with it.

“Well, this is about where we’re at right now. We’re still just getting started!”

Which of the two actually believes in themselves and their team more? The former is close to mere arrogance. Everyone fails somewhere along the way, and the probability of failure only rises the more recklessly you challenge uncertain territory. Everyone knows this.

To think “but surely not us” is exactly the thinking of a gambling addict. “There’s no way it can go any lower.” “There’s no way I don’t hit even one race out of twelve.” “Someone’s bound to cut this Y1 for sure.” That kind of thinking, when facing uncertain events, is a sickness — a sickness unto death.

You will fail. So will I. So will we. We’ll end up looking pathetic. We’ll get hurt. We’ll get abused. That’s just how it is.

Even a startup that’s raised billions of yen within a few years of founding and ballooned to 50 employees is, in the end, an organization and a management team only a few years old, like a small child. No matter how skillful, accomplished, and polished the people you gather are, poke around the inside in detail and the reality is bound to be an absolute mess. Mistake that for “we’re pretty great” and you’ll get badly hurt the moment you fall into a hole. In other words, recommending the “image-unconscious” mindset isn’t about dragging yourself down with negative thinking. It’s essentially a self-admonition of “don’t get carried away,” which in turn becomes the discipline of “if we don’t properly build up what needs to be built up, there’s no tomorrow.” It’s a rule made, in a sense, for startups, and very startup-like in nature.

Hold onto a hungry spirit together with upward ambition and low self-assessment, and that combination becomes your strongest weapon.

I once had the chance to go to Israel and met all kinds of people there. What they had in common was “low self-assessment” paired with pride in the belief that “when it comes to innovation, we won’t lose.” The self-assessment here operates at the level of the nation. They genuinely seemed to think their own country was in a precarious state. That’s different from the presence or absence of pride — pride can sometimes be groundless, something already inherent rather than built up. But their sense that Israel as a country is risky is simply the conclusion of objective insight. They think the country itself is in a precarious state. So they work hard. If they don’t work hard, they believe the country itself will vanish, and that they themselves will die.

I wrote about this in the Paolo Maldini piece too —

https://clazytech.com/2014/02/89/

Constantly losing, or being on the verge of losing, is actually a very good thing. It lets you see how much higher you still have to climb.

Still far from there

Still no good

Still ahead of us

This is the correct, innovative mentality.

Originally published in Japanese at https://clazytech.com/2018/02/435/. Translated with LLM assistance and reviewed before publication.