Disrupt, Pivot, Digital, Ideate, New Normal, Unprecedented, Hustle, Hope… just some Buzzwords of recent times! The words are good to use or should I say abuse today and I find a lot of founders of new businesses are struggling to cope up with the ambiguous environment.

“You can’t have a million-dollar dream with a minimum-wage work ethic.” Stephen C. Hogan said this better than I could have. Having discussions with start ups I am constantly observing the struggle of the leaders of the business going with the flow rather than setting themselves a clear strategy.

My pick (read rant) today is on two words – Hope and Hustle.

I do understand that organizations are more flat today and working in virtual environments gives everyone a bit more comfort at work. However businesses still need to function on key principles and need to have clear accountability tied to timelines. Even if you run an organization of 3 people the fact that its a organization you need to lay down clear OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and tie individual KPI aligned to them. Businesses cannot thrive in chaos of a love fest (all good people saying all good things!) and hope is never a strategy.

The other word I want to pick on is “Hustle”. Don’t get me wrong, Hustle is a great word and it means to be the hardest worker in the room (my definition). However, running in random directions in the name of activity is not Hustle but Chaos. Hustle is focusing your energy is a specific direction and giving it your 200%. This goes back to the first point…if you don’t have clarity of direction you cannot hustle !

English is a great language and it unifies a lot of us across geographies and age groups by enabling communication however important thing to remember is, language is not really absolute but contextual and its not enough to use words or buzzwords but also get behind the meaning of those words in context.

Starting a business is not just knowing what you will do but also knowing and articulating what you won’t do !

Finally, leaving you with my favorite quote – Fail to plan is plan to fail !