As the Founder of Obino, a Health tech startup, for the last five years, through the ups and downs of bootstrapping, product development, team-building, fund-raising and Investor management, I’ve been facing uncertainty on a daily basis related to many areas. These include but are not limited to business outcomes, cash flows, relationships with team members and investors and much more. And I must say, uncertainty can certainly be unsettling!
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Being an organised soul by nature (ok, tending to OCD if I’m honest), I have dealt with this uncertainty, by creating neat little boxes in my mind and labelling everything with a status. I do realise that I do this simply to make sense of the world & retain a sense of control amidst all this chaos. And I have to admit that it helps. Sometimes.
But sometimes, uncertainty is good
Lately however, as I’ve grown older and my relationships have expanded beyond the spheres of my workspace and family, I have realised that labelling things, especially people and our ever-evolving relationships with them, may not necessarily be the best strategy. I’ve realised that ‘labelling things’ actually forces you to push something fragile, vulnerable and emerging – out of the grey space of evolution – out into the cold, hard light of day that is black or white.
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Black and white has no room for negotiation. For compromise. But grey does. Grey has possibilities, room for growth and evolution. And so, grey can be beautiful. It can be liberating, inspiring, exciting and everything that’s not real, practical or sensible.
So, if you’re struggling with situations that are not black or white or in places that you can’t figure out how to label, take a deep breath and enjoy the uncertainty. Go with the flow. See where it takes you. And for a short while, stop labelling things. Let’s just see what happens.
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