De-cluttering by asking yourself adifferent set of questions

Marie Kondo, author’s famous line “We should be choosing what we want to
keep, not what we want to get rid of” illustrates “inversion” a critical thinking
skill that I feel is really applicable for entrepreneurs, esp. those running start-
ups.
In short; inversion forces you to consider aspects of a situation that are often
hidden at first glance. What if the opposite was true? What if you focused on a
different side of the situation?
Given an early stage entrepreneur is typically juggling multiple balls some
critical, some important and some distractive, often Instead of asking how
to do something, asking how to not do it could provide easier and quicker
solutions. As author Josh Kaufman says “By studying the opposite of what you
want, you can identify important elements that aren't immediately obvious.”

Start-up Situations and some questions to ask
Failure is more rampant than success, thus instead of asking “how do I
succeed”, an entrepreneur could ask “how do I avoid failure”. The attitude of
avoiding mistakes is often under-rated. “What should I avoid to not make a
mistake” is a great question to ask, as analysing reasons for failure is often
more important.
Relationships: You are getting into constant fights with your co-founder and
you are thinking how to make the relationship friendlier. Actually lean the
other way and ask a different question “how not to offend your co-founder”.
Paralled with “inversion”, thinking in extremes helps tremendously. Have you
ever tried to imagine total, devastating failure. Asking yourself the question
“what if everything I have built comes crashing down” could tell you a lot of
what to prepare for today. A strategy sometimes referred to as “kill the
company”, talks about imagining that you fast forward a year and see your
business failing. The questions to ask are “what went wrong”, “what mistakes
did we make”.
What if we were to ask ourselves the question, “what would a terrible start-up
founder do”, or “how can we make our start-up less innovative”. Does this
conjure up vivid pictures of what not to do… and thus by inversion what to do.
Funding is something a lot of start-ups strive for, so maybe instead of asking
yourself the question “how do I convince the investor” asking “how do I make my start-up non-fundable” or “how do I make the investor say no to me” could
help clarify what will it take to be fundable.
What about customers. Instead of asking “how do I get new/more customers”
asking “what would put-off our customers” could help identify hereto
unidentified consumer insights.
Inversion, in a nutshell shows us what to avoid and often helps discover
insights which we may have missed so far. In fact this strategy could actually
be safer than chasing success without sharpening the axe. Remember there is
very little danger in unplugging the TV, blocking social media and putting your phone on silent for a few hours a day.
Inversion often forces you to challenge your beliefs, however don’t let that stop you from asking these questions.