Wining and dining with Silicon Valley’s finest — What we all need to start doing today

I recently found myself in a fortunate position where I was around a dinner table with some of Silicon Valleys most successful VCs and advisors, being treated to one of the best restaurants that New Zealand offers.

Now, although a classy standard of wine was basically on tap — and drinking the night away was a genuine temptation — here posed an opportunity to understand the fundamentals of what had led these men from the valley to live extraordinary lives. Yes, they could give specific feedback on our company, on our product and on our business model, but what I was most interested in was understanding the building blocks to such feedback.

How did these men from the Valley get into a position to advise multiple fortune 100 companies and a number of governments, while running multiple international businesses?

And more importantly, why?

The beauty of what I’m about to share is that regardless of the stage of life that you’re in, applying these principles will help you to grow, to prosper and to achieve everything you ever wanted to.

Open your eyes, opportunity is all around you.

One of the first questions I asked was this:

“ Steve, how have you managed to achieve, all that you have achieved?”

From which Steve responded:

“It’s quite simple really, Mike. I look at the world like this (proceeds to mime peripheral vision) and if there’s an opportunity there, I take it. Too many people just look directly in front of them, and they miss great opportunities which are the slightest movement left or right…”

Let’s go ahead and illustrate this.

In this picture below, we are viewing a football game through the eyes of the quarterback. For arguments sake, let’s call him Jim.

Jim is the quarterback — a role that is immensely important to the success of his team. It is up to Jim to direct his team around the field, to pick up valuable yards and ultimately coordinate the team to score a touchdown.

Now, in this illustration Jim’s attention is purely on the ball and the space directly in front of him — sounds fine, right?

Looking at Jim’s tunnel vision, we can assume he is going to go straight ahead (run or pass), which is fine. However, there may be a better option, except Jim is oblivious to it.

What if someone is open to his left? Or there is a blocking mismatch? In such case, Jim has not seen it, and he has potentially missed an opportunity to pick up easy yards.

Now, let’s look at what’s going on in Jim’s periphery.

Here, we can see that Jim has an unopposed offensive lineman to his left. If he decides to pass to the left, or run left, could he pick up easy meters?

You bet he could.

Could Jim still run or pass to space directly in front of him? Well, yes he could, but he can now make a more informed decision about what to do next, in order to progress him and his team to the ultimate goal — a touchdown.

Let’s apply this to our personal and professional lives. When we start to progress down a certain path, we sometimes become obsessed with continuing with something that may have worked in the past, rather than noticing the massive opportunities that are opening to our left and to our right. These opportunities have not come about by chance. They are there because of our previous hard work.

Related: Basketball and Life — 3 learnings from the court that should be applied to everyday living

Yes we could try to muscle forward, and continue to do what we have always done, but that is not always the most effective way to achieve the overall goal; to score that touchdown. By opening our eyes, we will start to see the opportunities that are all around us.

This is what makes the men from the Valley so great. When they sense a new opportunity, even if it requires a pivot, they take it.

You are the quarterback. It is up to you to see the opportunity and to take it. To plant your foot and make that small pivot, which will position yourself and your team to make more yards by going slightly to the left than continuing directly forward.

The key here is this — when you see that opportunity, take it without hesitation. It will only present itself for a small window of time, so be assertive and take it with both hands.

About the Author:

Mike is the CEO of Botbuild.ai and a public speaker. You can connect with him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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