F*ck Big Announcements — Small Victories Drive Startups

We all love celebrating the big wins with big announcements.

✓ We celebrate our big product launches.
✓ We celebrate key partnerships.
✓ We celebrate when we raise a big funding round.**

All of those sound amazing — and sometimes they are.  But, what gets lost are the victories that actually matter: the small victories.

Small victories are what lead to the big announcements. But, they often get overlooked for one reason or another. Things like:

★ The first paying customer you signed.
★ The first month you broke even.
★ The first customer acquisition campaign that actually yielded positive results.

When we talk to startups, they often hide these victories and think of them as insignificant — all because it doesn’t compare to Airbnb raising $850M on a $30B valuation.

That doesn’t matter.  That didn’t come out of the blue. It came because that company focused on incredibly small victories and won.

Startups aren’t about big announcements.  They’re about being in the trenches each and every day to get just one more small victory like:

★Making a customer happy because you answered an email immediately.
★ Convincing that one person you know to trust you just enough to do some design work for you gratis.
★Making payroll. (!!!)

Those aren’t small achievements.

Those are the most important achievements! They shouldn’t be overlooked — or worse — ignored.

The only way to endure the day-to-day struggle that is building a company from nothing is by truly appreciate every forward move — no matter how slight. Celebrate small victories. They add up quickly.

Celebrate small victories. They add up quickly.

If you’re waiting for home runs all day — you’re going to be waiting a long time. That’s not how this game is played.  It’s a daily struggle, but in the end it’s how big victories are won.