Life is uncertain.

I bet you didn’t know that you’d be reading this article yesterday. See, uncertainty. If you did, then you had inside information or the power of a soothsayer, and I’ve only really ever met one of those. But I digress.

All companies face some uncertainty, but uncertainty is at the heart of every start-up. It’s what distinguishes us from the large corporates with their barely changing product lines and fixed ways of working. Start-ups don’t have that luxury, we’re businesses in search of a business model. We know the problems we want to solve, and we have a plan of action, but what are the chances of us getting it right the first time or every time? Exactly zero. That’s why we need to embrace change, because it’s the only option available to us. The other option is failure and failure is NOT an option. (I’m hoping that scene from Apollo 13 is bubbling to the surface)

Ironic isn’t it, that we need to embrace failure to prevent failure.

So, what does all this means for Slyp?

It means that when the pandemic hits and our retail clients shutter their stores, we don’t panic, we adjust. We’re no longer a company that just offers smart receipts, we offer contactless technology. It means that when our bank integration schedule gets pushed out by 6 months, we don’t panic, we adjust. We develop new channels to deliver our smart receipt. We can now deliver receipts via banking apps or SMS. It means that when our old ways of working resulted in too many meetings and not enough output, we don’t panic, we adjust. We now work in cross functional teams with clear goals and ownership.

As an employee, embracing change means that I recognise the limits of my own knowledge or of what is knowable. I accept that things will go wrong because that’s the nature of the game, and when they do, we take the broader view that the failure was a positive step towards learning what is right and moving just one little step closer to fulfilling our company’s mission and vision.

It also means that I should strap myself in because it is going to be one hell of a ride.