Forget a mentor, get yourself an arch-enemy
Competitors and even enemies can bring out the best in you
Many people in business seek to avoid adversarial relationships. But throughout my career, I have found these relationships very valuable. So while others would advise you to find a mentor, I encourage you to find a nemesis.
After all, without Lex Luther, Superman is just a moody alien who never learned to put his speedo on first. There would be no great rivalry, no ultimate battles of good vs evil. Without the Joker, Batman is just and emo furry with a latex fetish. There would be no colossal battles of wit or will. Conflict provides a great opportunity to learn, to raise your game, to build confidence, and to overcome.
Let me share some of the arch-rivals I have had throughout my career. Each had a unique story and unique impact on my professional development.
Origins
I began my career in banking in the late 90’s. I worked at one of the biggest banks in the world, but mergers and competition had left it in a state of disarray. For a young analyst — it was a great opportunity.
The Mad Elf
The first nemesis I acquired looked like Link from the Legend of Zelda, only in business casual. He was a high priced consultant and because of the state of the company, I reported into him.
The rivalry was clearly one-sided. I performed his data support and became increasingly jealous that he was doing all the exciting stuff. He had an amazing gift for turning a small amount of data into complex set of charts, graphs, and forecasts.
To add insult to injury, I was later asked to validate all of his claims, once more data was available. I was hell bent on finding something he did wrong — it never happened. The Mad Elf’s industry experience and gut instinct were something I would seek to model later in my career.
The Storyteller
Months after the Mad Elf departed I would encounter my next nemesis and a true arch-enemy. This was my first real rivalry and one whose lessons I learned the hard way.
The Storyteller was a marketing executive who earned his nickname from his annoying and persistent catchphrase. “Let’s say we wanted to tell a story… what would we need to believe if…?”
On the surface, this seems like a reasonable question and process. The problem, as I would later confront him, was that his stories were fairy tales. He created assumptions that were well outside what the data supported. He was well aware of this, but he knew that framing things the way he did would allow him to sell his ideas to the executive staff.
My rivalry with the Storyteller would end poorly — unemployment. The experience would chase me out of the industry and sent me on to meet my next arch-enemy.
The Madman
In 2000, I found myself joining the dotcom universe. I joined a startup as a software developer. My boss there would be one of the greatest programmers I ever encountered. The Madman had the ability to sit at a keyboard and type at ridiculous speeds, at no point did his hands touch the mouse or hit the backspace. Some time later he would stop and run the code. Over six months and dozens of these events, I never saw him correct more than a single typo. The man was astounding.
Unfortunately, he was a self-purported master of Klingon management. The Madman threatened to fire me more times than I could count. He threatened when I made a mistake, he threatened when I delivered projects weeks ahead of schedule. I was hired to lead a team, but no one informed the prior leader, instead we were both informed we could fight it out and see who was left standing at the end.
The Madman was known for marathon Everquest sessions and would go missing for days, but he tallied every person’s time sheet with relish. After I was hired, the company relocated. This was never mentioned during the hiring process, despite the fact that the move occurred less than 3 weeks later! The Madman’s excuse — I knew you wouldn’t have taken the job.
I resigned after only six months. Even that drew retribution. In the end, the rivalry ended in a draw. The experience was a turning point for me. The Madman never got the best of me and compared to him, no other rival has ever been so … vexing.
I was ready to return to banking, and that led me to…
