How To Show Up
September 9, 2007 | by Andrew HydeOne of the biggest fears I have with Startup Weekend is that the founders (the people who sign up and decide to show up) come into the weekend with a different expectation to the weekend than what it is. I was talking about this with a fellow Startup Weekend Boulder founder Rich Grote, and he followed up with this email, which sums it up how to show up.
How to show up:
(1) Decide to show up. It’s one thing to have your body in the room. It’s quite another to really really “show up” and be a part of StartupWeekend. Make a choice to bring everything you’ve got to the process.
(2) Things move quickly. This is actually a really great thing. You have 54 hours. There just isn’t time for egos or for decisions to drag on.
(3) Remember that it’s not about you. With so many brilliant folks in the room, it might be tempting to do some posturing and attempting to figure out who’s the smartest one in the room. You’re all smart. There will probably be a bunch of ways to do something important. Discuss it, have a vote if you want, and then let it go and get back to work.
(4) Spend time on the right things.
(5) Be useful. If you don’t have anything to do, FIND something to do. Help another group. Float around and work as “glue,” connecting other groups and keeping things together. Go out and get the Dev folks something to eat or remind them to walk around every once in a while.
(6) Follow through. Be the person who gets a task and just flat-out gets it done. And quickly.
The only thing I would add is come to the weekend to be part of a community, a crazy little community.
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