How Important is Trusting Your Gut When Starting Up?

Going with gut instinct has plenty of famous adherents—Steve Jobs was famous at Apple for making key decisions without referring to marketing data, one of which is said to have been the genesis of the iPad—a device that sold 42 million devices in 2016. Jobs said that intuition “more powerful than intellect”, while serial entrepreneur and founder of Virgin Richard Branson, once commented that: “I rely far more on gut instinct than researching huge amounts of statistics.”

As a startup business, I know that gut instinct or intuition is particularly important, when time is in short supply, and when being true to your initial vision is often the most essential part of the business, even if it is the easiest part to get lost in the noise.

You’re More in Control Than You Think

Many times starting a business is compared to a never-ending rollercoaster ride—which is true because of the multiple ups and downs you face every day. But what isn’t accurate about that description is that on a rollercoaster ride you have no control over where you are headed—the tracks are laid out for you ahead of time. With a business you are in charge of making decisions of where this ride will go on every single turn. You are, and need to be, in control—or appear to be.

The pressure is real, and it only becomes more intense as more passengers join your ‘car’; because now you are not just leading yourself, you are leading them as well. And if you crash and burn, so does everyone in the car with you. As the responsibility rises, so can the stress and the feeling that your intuition cannot be trusted.

In part, this comes back to how much of a risk taker you are willing to be. And with a business, your business, a start-up business with limited funds, you need to take risks. Go big or go home, right?

Trust Yourself and Others Will Follow

So not only do you have to trust your gut fully, but you need everyone working with you to trust it as well—because if you falter on yourself, chaos will ensue. Let’s also remember that the world of the startup is all about conviction, trusting that idea which the big guys with all their big data mining smarts don’t think will pan out. In many ways, you could say that intuition and gut feeling is one of the main tools in the startup founder’s toolbox. There are also those balancing moments, where you get amazing feedback from a customer that allow you a sense of perspective and a job well done.

As well as trusting your intuition and following your vision, being mindful of the present is a useful technique for startup founders and experienced CEO’s alike. Allowing yourself to exist in the present, not in the past or the future is a powerful tool to calm the stresses of daily life and allow your intuition to speak up

Are there guarantees that your gut will always be right? No. However, as the old truism goes “nothing in life that can be guaranteed, except that we will all eventually die.” Without being maudlin, there is valuable perspective here—if you wanted a mundane 9-5, or to work for somebody else’s business, then go to it, but if you want to be a successful startup, that begins and ends with you. Be yourself, trust your intuition, and be the success you deserve.

Author: Tali K. Gadish is the Founder and CEO of the Library of Miss Gadish, an interactive library app that combines education and entertainment.

After graduating from the prestigious Tisch School of Arts, Tali began her career with Dreamworks, moving on to ABC News. She then became a divisional director of Grey Global Group and continued to work as a freelance graphic designer and marketing strategist for brands such as Car2go, Merit Corp and Bellisima. After the birth of her children she began to explore her passion for children’s stories and content and noticed that most children’s apps lacked educational benefits. With advice from professional educators and child psychologists, the interactive app ‘The Library of Miss Gadish’ was born. Follow @MissGadish on Twitter and Facebook.