Years ago, back in my start-up days, I came across another startup called Scient. They had very bold marketing, including a brochure that has stayed in my mind ever since. It was many pages that read "Business as usual. Business as usual." over and over again in a font that slowly faded out until it disappeared. Then it said, in clear letters, "Game over."
It was prescient of the fate Scient would suffer itself, and a good lesson for all.
1 Comment
Sport climbing is mostly judged by the difficulty of the route climbed. But there is an offshoot of gym climbing called "Speed Climbing". As the name implies, it is a sport where the competition is to see who can climb up a relatively easy route the fastest. Years ago I read about speed climbing champion Hans Florine and I remember this quote from him: "I imagine I am throwing the holds to the ground."
This quote really resonated with me, as it is easy to imagine that mindset. I feel the same way about getting anything done. You need to grab the project and throw it behind you. That is, you want to get it done -- completely and well -- as quickly as possible. You want that project to be in your past. If you don't, if you hold on to them too long, then the next project comes along and suddenly you have two projects on our hands, and it becomes harder to throw the first project. Then more come along and next thing we know, you're juggling multiple projects at the same time and never get past any of them. If I may use another outdoor sports analogy: expedition-style adventure racing is basically a multi-sport endurance race. The "Eco-Challenge" is probably the most well-known of these. Top teams finish the course in roughly 36 hours, people at the back of the pack take 4-5 days, if they finish at all. I once saw an interview with a member of a champion team who said something like: "When I'm on the course, all I can think about is 'I have to get off this course as soon as possible! I don't know how those guys survive being on the course for 4 or 5 days. It's brutal. I would just die." Sometimes when we crave change, the effort can seem so daunting. We feel that the vast majority of people around us have a different view, and changing their minds is an impossible task. But, through history we see how individuals and small groups of people who are really passionate about an idea are able to ignite change that revolutionizes entire societies. Scientific research brings some light to this. It turns out that if 10% of a population believes very strongly in an idea, the rest of the population inevitably eventually comes to believe in that idea. Only 10%. So, changing the world is actually not that daunting, if you truly believe.
I am adamant about the importance of collaboration. But why is collaboration important? It's because that's how we maximize our value to customers (and thus to the firm). Let's face it, we're all hired because of our brains. In tech companies, we're generally not hired for our physical strength, our height, eye color, or good looks. We're hired to use our brains. So a team of people is a collection of minds.
We can think of various ways to harness the collective power of the brains, of various combining functions for that power. For example, the combining function could be min(), which gives us the power of the minimum brain. That would be terrible! That's the least common denominator! We certainly don't want that, but it happens from time to time, unfortunately. Slightly better would be max() where we simply follow the most powerful brain. It's still one brain, so there's not much value in having a collection, except as a way to increase the sample size in which to find that most powerful brain. Even better would be sum(), where we add up the contributions of each of the brains and harness the sum total. Now the collection starts to have real value, but the whole is no greater than the sum of the parts. The best possible outcome is something like product(), where the powers of the brains are 'multiplied' together. This happens when people truly collaborate. Brains have an amazing ability to inspire each other to do more than they would all on their own. They challenge each other and push each other to greater accomplishments and they work together. And that is when the whole is far greater than the sum of the parts. The old adage is "As hire As, and Bs hire Cs". If you are unfamiliar with this saying, the quick translation
is that talented people recognize and want to work with other talented people, so they hire them. Top talent realizes that the best way to move their project or company forward is to put the best possible people on it. And top talent are not afraid of being replaced by talent they bring in. Conversely, Bs (non-top talent) tend to hire people worse than themselves either because they can't recognize talent when they see it, they don't value talent, or they are afraid of it -- or a combination of all these. My own experience tells me that the adage above is in fact true. Of course that means the corollary is also true: "If you don't hire As, you are not an A yourself." There is a tendency for groups within a company to think of other internal groups as their "customers" or their "suppliers". This is a mistake. There is only one customer, the real external customer, the one who pays your company money for your products and services. Internal groups are partners -- not vendors or customers -- working together in a spirit of openness and honestly that comes with being on the same team. Partners trust each other to do their respective jobs, hold each other to account, and live up to that trust and those expectations, all driven by a desire to serve that real customer.
Not surprising to me, a recent study shows that excellent people work fewer hours but in a more focused and intense way (High Intensity Interval Working?). And they set clear goals for themselves. I see this difference as climbing mountains (where you know when you get to the top) vs heading out on the endless vista of toil. The latter sounds dreary, but it can become a surprisingly comfortable place to settle into and lose sense of whether you are actually getting anywhere.
When skiing or biking in the woods, there is one cardinal rule: don't look at the trees! If you look at a tree, you will surely hit it. Instead, look only at the spaces between the trees, and you will glide safely through. I find this applies to most things in life.
Dream it. Then live it. Two steps. Very important to keep them distinct. By this I mean that when you want
to get somewhere, you should think of where you ideally want to get to. Do not be encumbered by thoughts of where you are right now. Irrelevant. Where do you need/want to go? Then -- as a second and totally distinct step -- figure out how you're going to get from here to there. Why is it so important to keep these steps separate? Because pushing them together leads to incrementalism. It limits you. Terribly. Instead of thinking about where you would ideally like to go, you think about which directions you can take a step into from where you are right now. It keeps you from dreaming big, and keeps you mired in Business as Usual. When I tell people this, I frequently get back from the incrementalists the incredulous query, "But how do you know it's even possible?!". Well, I don't. That's what the second step is for. Once you know where you need go, then figure out how you're going to get there. If it seems impossible to get there from here, you can either scale back your ambitions, or you can try to make the impossible possible. How do you do that? By changing the rules of the game. Things are "impossible" usually only within a particular context or set of expectations. If you can change those, do the unexpected, change the context, change the rules of the game, you can frequently do things that are "impossible". And the world is full of real-life examples. The Kennedy Moonshot is one of my favorites. At the time Kennedy made his famous speech, getting to the moon was "impossible". New materials needed to be invented. Things that had never been done before, even vaguely, would have to be done. And they were. Because a whole lot of people dreamed it first, and then lived it. Thank you for visiting. Crazy Peak is my early stage (angel) technology business investment and advisory firm. If you have a start-up you'd like me to take a look at, if you are an investor who would like to see the deals I see and potentially co-invest, or if you are a talented individual looking for a job with a tech start-up, please contact me.
My name is Philip Brittan. I have been a serial entrepreneur and worked at a variety of larger companies. You can see my full background on LinkedIn. Over the years, I have written a number of articles and blogs, some public and some internal. I plan to continue that tradition here. My most recent blogging was at Thomson Reuters. In case you're wondering why the name Crazy Peak: I grew up on a ranch outside of Livingston, Montana, in sight of the Crazy Mountain range. The highest peak in that range is called Crazy Peak, and I have climbed it several times. It is a majestic mountain, a grand pile of naked rock, with a commanding view of the surrounding spectacular terrain, and full of inspiration. All the best! Philip |
AuthorPhilip Brittan is the General Partner of Crazy Peak LLC Archives
February 2021
Categories |
Copyright (c) 2016 Crazy Peak LLC |