Focus vs. Flexibility

As one who has had the privilege of working with a lot of startups, I feel it would be hard to overestimate the visceral and emotional tension that occurs as startup entrepreneurs try to focus but also maintain flexibility. There is an inherent tension between focus and flexibility. Why? Because it is idealistic and naive to think that a startup can immediately, without any preparation, dramatically change course even when all the right reasons dictate such a change. If a startup could dramatically change course without advanced preparation, then there would be no tension between focus and flexibility. A startup could simply stay laser focused on solving a particular business problem and then point the laser in a different direction upon receiving new data. In reality, it is not this easy.

This leads to a problem. Startups that are not sure that they have created the product, service, or business model that will create enormous success often have to start working on multiple offerings _from the very beginning_. If they don't start working on putting multiple "irons in the fire" early on, they will be in trouble when they learn that the one "bet" that they made isn't paying out. So this creates a tension. On the one hand most seasoned startup veterans consider a lack of focus literally a cardinal sin for startups but I can't understand how you can avoid some lack of focus until you hit on a winning business model. Perhaps it is just because I haven't been smart (or lucky) enough in my career yet to identify the perfect business model from the very beginning of a start up and ride a wave of success from idea conception to glorious exit. Does anybody else out there have these feelings?