FOR STARTUP CEOs ONLY: Jump on opportunities, wisely

What a week this has already been! Filled with amazing surprises that remind me how special ("different") a job the CEO has in a startup. It is not classical corporate MBA territory.

Here is one thing that popped out to me: this is no job for people who plan on executing their carefully prepared plan and being rewarded for that.

Why? Because too many things happen suddenly. The unpredictable happens. The lucrative "blue bird" lands on your window without notice. The great news was not in your plan. And the terrible surprise smashes your precious plan.

Here are a couple of real examples that I am close to:

• Customer 3 tells his friends and soon you realize you are swamped with hungry customer candidates. But you don't have the sales people to respond. The CEO jumped and the VP Biz Dev got the green light to scramble (code for spend more time hiring and less time selling). Soon four outstanding sales people joined the new enterprise. The orders began to accelerate far beyond plan projections. So did the burn rate and the need for the B round to be closed much earlier.

• Slow Giant Customer finally says it is ready for an order (of very large size) but tells you they want a custom version and are interested in buying a large portion of your company. The CEO jumped and soon the core team emerged from days of intense work with a plan. The custom code would be the basis for the architecture of the next generation product. That would save two years of time to market.

• Competitor ABC launches a game that is wildly successful overnight in China. The CEO of the competing startup sees this as a huge validation of the target market and has his core team hop on planes to accelerate entry into China. Cash burn plans are scrapped for a new one that calls for a much earlier B round (and faster growth in revenue).

• Public Corporation Competitor Z sues the CEO's startup over a doubtful matter, intending to delay the startup's sales progress and confuse customers. The CEO rallies the board and core team who work out a fresh plan to leverage the energy of the legal efforts into even more sales.

None of those significant events were in any business plan.

All of them open huge doors of lucrative opportunity.

To take advantage of big opportunities calls for cool calm in the face of emotional shock and intense competitive fire. Courage and boldness are high on the list of what the CEO and board and core team must exhibit. And a great deal of wisdom is called for, especially from the board of directors.

These are not times for rage and anger, or testosterone highs.  Those chemicals make a  mess out of your brain, clouding its ability to make clever moves and clear decisions.

BOTTOM LINE: Some say "execution is everything" in a startup. Responding to the unforeseen is a big  part of that. This is a game of risk maximization, not risk reduction. Focus of tiny resources on the most lucrative target is how to win, to become the next gorilla. Shifting the focus is very risky, but oftn very necessary. Even if it means abandoning a huge part of your carefully prepared plan and jumping to exploit the unexpected opportunity. When you understand this, you'll add a rock solid element to building your unfair advantage.