Choose your own adventure
A close friend of mine is a young executive at a local investment bank; she’s worked there for seven years. She’s been promoted fast, and she’s very grateful for it. Recently she stumbled upon an opportunity to start her own venture, and that’s all that’s been on her mind lately.
“I thought I would work for the bank for the rest of my life,” something glimmered in her eyes, “but then when I failed to meet my target last quarter, I realized I simply did not care. All I could think about is this crazy idea that I have, an idea that’s nothing at all yet. ”
In fact, she’s already secured capital, land, and all the essentials of her venture. It’s not at all “nothing at all”. All she needs at this moment is to make up her mind to start building the company. I’ve been encountering similar predicaments that she’s in — young executives armed with prestigious brands who believe there’s too much to lose to start something of their own. Their professional experience has made them realistic, grounded, and highly skilled in their respective field; they are also still young, energetic, and full of ideas; they’d make the best founders, but the lack of idealism and the fear of risk kept them from taking the leap.
These people are different from the young founders that I’ve been surrounded myself with. The young founders have world-class execution skills for product creation and the most idealistic vision but lack strategic and system thinking and a more comprehensive map of the world. This hinders their ability to build a successful business that can last and scale. They excel at building and shipping things that work beautifully, but sometimes those are not the things people actually need or want.
On the other end of the spectrum, we also have older entrepreneurs who are already esteemed experts in their fields and decided to start a venture to mark the last highlight of their career. They have a grand vision because getting the capital and network is no longer a challenge, but now they are limited by their own energy and abilities to be an effective operator. They also have a hard time attracting young talents, since many of them are no longer in tune of what the new generation is looking for.
Seeing their journey unfolds feels like seeing different plot lines in a “choose your own adventure” game. One encouraging thing is that with all the strengths and downfalls of each stage, nothing is truly impossible, and these people are living their belief. One just needs to be aware of their own limitations. I started asking myself, now given all the options, which narrative would you choose?
When my friend told me her new venture is now the reason she wakes up in the morning, she’s already had an answer. Before we parted, I told her that once you make something that is your own, and that something is what people want, the world will never be the same again.
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