Why running a Business is like flying an Airplane.
It is a saying that entrepreneur is someone who jumps off the cliff and builds an airplane on the way down. I have been thinking a lot about this. While it is true that Entrepreneur has to build a plane on the way down, his job is not only to build that airplane but also make sure it flies and also can reach to the destination without crashing during the journey.
Although I have never been a pilot or flown an Airplane but I love a lot about reading how Plane works and how Pilots fly an airplane. In this blog post I will try to make some comparison between why running a business is similar to flying an Airplane.
As you can already imagine, building a company is not an easy task. There are many people who are scared of potential failure so they don’t even take the first step which is jumping off the cliff. Leaving a well paying 9 to 5 job and take a leap of faith into unknown is hard. It becomes even harder if you have a house loan, car loan or wife and kids responsibility.
But for those who decide to do it, so begins a journey into the unknown. A journey into a land of endless possibilities but also obstacles that needs to be overcome. Some will become successful but many will fail and get real life lessons which can help them do better when they start next time.
Entrepreneurs are visionary. They have a vision to achieve something or change something. In order to fulfil their dream and accomplish their mission and vision, they take this calculated risk. And they do everything in their power to make it happen.
When an Entrepreneur starts a business, builds a team, builds products and services for their customers, it becomes the responsibility of the Entrepreneur to make sure he or she help their customers reach their goal or destination. This is just like a pilot of an airplane whose responsibility is to make sure their passengers reach their destination safely and on time.
Now let’s take a moment and think about a scenario. Let’s say you are about to board an airplane and suddenly someone told you that there is only one pilot in the plane and that too has never taken a formal training. He has just learned to fly airplane by watching videos on internet.
I am sure you will not dare to board that plane. But think about this, how many entrepreneurs actually take a formal training before starting their business. Some of them just watch a few videos on internet and think they are ready to start a business.
In a business, Founders of the business are the Pilots and it’s their responsibility to safely land the passengers who are travelling along with them. By Passengers, I mean the stakeholders like employees, customers, vendors and investors who are directly or indirectly connected with your business.
The key is to prepare yourself before taking a path of entrepreneurship. You need to be ready both mentally and physically before you take that plunge. And by preparing I am not saying just go to some business school and take some expensive MBA course.
There is nothing wrong in taking such course but the problem is those Business schools are teaching you how to fly a DC10 airplane which is like more than 50 years old plane however today you need to learn how to fly a Boeing 777X which is like launched last year and use all the latest tools and technologies.
The best way to learn is learning by experience. Try doing something at very small scale and learn from it. Keep doing it over and over. Don’t resign from your job or take a huge loan when you are not ready. If you are a fresher, do some internships. Get some experience, fail couple of times, just like a pilot gets training on simulator before actually flying an airplane.
CoPilots and CoFounders
When you are flying a small airplane, it is ok to be a solo pilots because your airplane is not so complex and you can single handedly control every thing. But think about flying a commercial airliner with multiple engines, thousands of dials and controls, highly complex machine.
It is almost next to impossible to fly such a complex machine single handedly. Even experienced pilots needs copilots to fly such airplanes. Similarly when your organisation starts growing, it becomes very difficult to manage everything on your own. You need co-founder to run the business. Not only co-founder but you also need a team of really smart and talented people who can help you take your “flight” to the destination safely and successfully.
Wings and Idea
An airplane needs wings to take off. Wings produces lift for an aircraft. The more aerodynamics the wings has, the faster and higher the plane can climb. In a business, the wing is represented by your idea. The better your idea is, the faster and higher your business will climb. But just having a great idea is not sufficient just like only wings cannot make your plane fly. You need other stuff like Engines, Fuels and experienced pilots to successfully take off your flight.
Fuel and Cash
An airplane needs fuel to run the engines and propel the aircraft. The equivalent of fuel in business is Cash. You need cash to run your business. Just like no matter how good your plane is, if you run out of fuel during your flight, it is inevitable that your plane will fall out of sky and will crash. Similarly when your business runs out of cash, it doesn’t matter how good your business model is or how great your idea is, your business is doomed to fail. So make this number one rule for your business, Never run out of cash.
Engine and Marketing
An engine intake fuel and provides necessary thrust to the airplane so that airplane can take off and climb to new heights. In business, that thrust is generated by Sales and Marketing. Marketing intakes cash but provides that necessary outreach to the business to generate awareness about products or services they offer. Sales and Marketing activities are the real growth engines of a successful business.
Cockpit Dashboard and Business Metrics
Imagine an Airplane where there is no dials, controls, display systems in the airplane. It will be almost impossible to fly that plane unless the plane is highly automated and flown by artificial intelligence. No matter how experienced the pilot is, he or she needs this monitoring system to understand how the flight is going and make sure it is going in right direction. Similarly an Entrepreneur needs his own set of business metrics to measure how his business is performing and make sure it is moving in the right direction. Without systems and monitoring in place, your business is doomed to fail.
Passengers and Customers
If you exclude cargo planes, then main reason for running an airplane is to make sure that passengers can reach their destination safely and timely while having a great experience flying an airline. Similarly the purpose of a business is to make sure their customers can achieve whatever they want to achieve using your products or services. Business needs to keep their customers happy at all the times. If your “Passengers” are hungry, feed them. If they don’t feel safe, comfort them. If they have any questions, answer them.
Crew and Employees
It is the responsibility of the Crew to successfully operate an airline. They check the well being of the aircraft. Make sure the passengers are happy with the inflight services. They also liaise with pilots to make sure the plane get smoothly from one point to another while providing great experience to the passenger.
In a business, the equivalent of the crew are employees of the business. Their responsibility is to make sure the customers are happy with the products or services that the business is offering. Just like you cannot run an airline with a crew, similarly it is impossible to run a business without employees.
Now with so many similarities between running a business and flying an aircraft, let’s look at who is a Pilot and who is an Entrepreneur.
Both Pilot and Entrepreneur knows that there are so many moving parts in their machine, so many things that needs to happen in order to build a successful journey. They know that there are so many things that can go wrong and things actually go wrong during the flight so they are well prepared for such situations in advance.
It goes without saying that if you fear of flying, probably Pilot is not something you should try to become. Similarly, if you scared of taking risks, Entrepreneurship is probably not for you.
An entrepreneur has to take risk. Find a way out of uncertainty. Probably he has to put all his blood and sweat while his plane is still on runway but he knows that once his plane takes off, he will be able to put it on autopilot mode and then he will be rewarded extremely well for the feat he has accomplished.
So if you think you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur, what are you waiting for, go build your plane. Make it fly damn fast and high.
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