Many Americans would be familiar with the term ‘Mensch’. According to Wikipedia, a Mensch is a person of integrity and honour. In this post, I wanted to share a few examples of what it means in practice in the startup world. The post is written in male figure but is intended for all sexes. I believe it’s also a derivative of Ubermensch: “Beyond-Man,” “Superman,” “Overman,” “Uberman”, or “Superhuman”, a concept in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche.
I got the idea for this post on my run this morning, and I guess it reminded me a bit of the book Give and Take by Adam Grant. The most successful people are givers. And the least successful people are givers too. How do you maintain integrity and end up on the top group? For a thorough answer you’ll have to read the book, but being a mensch is being a giver, and helping others want to be givers as well.
What makes someone a good startup Mensch?
- Keep your promises – for example, make introductions, or give meaningful feedback when you say you’re going to do so.
- Say thank you – when someone does something nice for you, it’s good practice to give a heartfelt thank you. Acknowledging the person that helped you is a great start.
- Give credit where credit is due – reached an amazing milestone? closed a round? congrats! it’s takes a village to raise a startup, a mensch would call out those that made it possible.
- Go the extra mile – everyone is busy and sometimes the requests we get are not exactly straightforward. A mensch would go the extra mile, even if it inconveniences them at the exact moment. Help someone find a job by doing more than just forwarding an email.
- Pay it forward – it’s nice to reciprocate, but often there’s an imbalance between people needing help and people giving help. One way to ‘repay’ the favour is to pay it forward – just commit to do the same for someone else in need.
- If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail – “How can I help?” – don’t you wish you heard it more often? When your hammer means you’re looking for opportunities to help, they will naturally appear to you.
- Update the person that introduced you – supposed you were introduced to a potential customer or investor, and supposed they ended up converting (buying, investing, etc). Did you update the person that introduced you? It doesn’t mean you owe them, and the update would be much appreciated to close the loop.
- Praise good behaviour – you see someone behaving extraordinarily? praise the behaviour, with true feelings. Do it soon after it happened. Tell the person what they did right, encourage them, and they are likely to repeat that behaviour.
- Don’t be shortsighted, Prioritise long term goals – the problem with being a mensch, or a giver, is that you can quickly let negative thoughts and fears of getting taken advantage of, take over. Personal branding is not about reaching a number followers on social media, but rather how you are perceived as a person/professional.
- Cultivating seeds – a mensch is someone that listens and sees value in people regardless of their official title or position in life. If you’re lucky, it is the person that helps you early on in your career. Be that person.
So, who are the real mensches in your world? Did you let them know how you see them?
I'm a former general partner at google ventures, head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe and founding head of Campus London, Google's first physical hub for startups.
I'm also the founder of Techbikers, a non-profit bringing together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read. Since inception in 2012 we've built 11 schools and 50 libraries in the developing world.
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