The startup within
Ten Life lessons after visiting the Startup Nation
Israel is a fascinating country. I just had the privilege to travel for a week throughout the country alongside a group of talented young Latin-American leaders. The leadership program — Reality Adelante — was sponsored by the Schusterman Foundation, a great organisation that “seeks to ignite the passion and unleash the power in young people to create positive change.”
By exposing us to both the millenary and the recent history of Israel, its fascinating culture, its over-complicated geopolitics, its complex identity as a nation, and its difficult current challenges, the Foundation wanted us to experience these realities first hand in order to take those learnings, and become true factors of change within our own societies.
I was particularly intrigued to learn more about what has made Israel, the real Startup Nation, such a technological powerhouse and a driver of world innovation. As I became more familiar with the country´s history, culture and people, the answers became more clear and straightforward (few things in Israel are).
As a venture capitalist, aiming to promote economic development and innovation both in Mexico and Latin America through Capital Invent, I pondered about some of these factors and relating them to Reid Hoffman´s book “The startup of you”, I drew some important lessons, that, if I were to take a startup approach to building my own life, would help me create a successful startup-life:
Team: It surprised me to learn how people from so many nationalities and histories came together, under the same cause, to build their own nation. Less than 60 years ago! It´s also impressive to see how the Jewish Diaspora all around the world, with a team-work spirit, support each other and help lift their own communities. This got me thinking about the importance, of creating strong and balanced teams within my family, friends, colleagues and community, and the impact this can have in my life.
Mission: True leaders define a clear mission for their startup and are able to motivate and inspire their team to follow them on that path. Standing besides the grave of the great David Ben-Guiron in Sde Boker, I learned how he was able to bring together his “not-yet-countrymen” under the same mission: to create a safe home for the Jewish people. Have I found what is my REAL mission in life and, will I be able to lead others into following me alongside it?
Vision: Walking through the streets of Jerusalem´s old city and actually feeling, and touching history with my own hands, following the Via Dolorosa (the path that Jesus crossed on his way to his crucifixion), I couldn’t help but keep thinking: what am I building, with “my one wild and precious life”, that can stand the test of time, have a lasting impact, and leave a real legacy that can last a thousand years?
Passion: We had the great experience of praying on the Shabbat at the West Wall, one of the most sacred places in the Jewish religion. I had never seen people pray with such passion and devotion. Completely lost in the spirituality and mysticism of the moment. What would my life be like if I could excerpt such passion in my daily endeavors? What if I could bring such commitment and dedication to my own personal beliefs and values?
Grit: After attending the home of a Holocaust survivor and hear her unbelievable story, followed by a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocasut Museum, where I was disgusted by the level of monstrosity that human intolerance can reach, but at the same time touched by the stories of resilience and love amongst such tragedy, one can only marvel about the levels of grit that the human spirit can reach. I am a real believer that “persistence and determination alone are omnipotent, and that the slogan Press On, has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race”
Irreverence: The Hebrew word is Chutzpah. Israelis question everything, especially authority. They don´t accept things simply because they were told so. This is particularly evident in the army. Walking alongside the streets of Tel Aviv, I saw a young soldier question forcefully someone who appeared to be his superior. I learned afterwards that this is common practice, and its not only frowned upon but encouraged. Continuously challenging the status-quo in my own reality is something I should aspire to do more.
Risk-taking mentality: Israel is a nation of immigrants. Most of its citizens, when they arrived years ago, came with nothing. In order to move forward and succeed, they had to take risks, and were not afraid to fail. If they did so, they didn´t have “much” to lose. If they fell, they would get up and try again and again. I experienced this mentality in many of the one-on-one meetings I had with Israeli startup founders. If I want to create something big and impactful, I need to better overcome my own fears of failure and take more intelligent and calculated risks.
Competitive Advantage: We drove in boogies along the Syrian boarder. On top of the Golan Heights, we heard the story of the Six Day War and how Israel, with a bold and sudden attack, won the war and increased its territory threefold. Today, that land, is at the heart of the current Middle East geo-political crisis. Israel took the decision that it would not give back the Golan Heights, because it was a very strategic point that would give them an important advantage in order to better secure their borders and water sources. Being able to act swiftly and seize an opportunity that will change the status-quo and help gain an edge against “competitors” is a key lesson.
Adaptability: The site and the history of Masada are quite impressive. A group of no more than 1,000 Jews had to escape Jerusalem in order to survive and live in a remote and isolated “fortress”, where they eventually suffered a harsh siege by Roman troops. People there had to take extreme measures to adapt in order to live and unfortunately, at the end, also to die. The ability to adapt to the fast-changing environment is fundamental for a startup to survive and thrive. Same thing with our own lives.
Thinking big: Dining in the middle of the Negev Desert, under a breath taking star-bright sky, made me ponder about how small and “insignificant” we humans are in contrast to the immensity of the universe. But at the same time, not withstanding our “smallness”, we each can have a tremendous and out-sized impact in our world. As Israeli entrepreneurs think how to create transformative things that can reach the whole world and go beyond their limited market, I too should always think big and aspire to higher altitudes. For “if I shoot for the moon, even if I miss, I´ll land among the stars”.
