Self-awareness and boldness of vision in the start-up way

In Paul Murphy’s Case Against Entrepreneurship, fear and greed can be big enemies as the entrepreneur struggles to make the start-up idea grow as a company. A central contribution from his perspective is the recognition that multiple pressure systems are acting on all individuals that are onboard: cofounders, employees, investors, and even customers.

“Six months later they could feel the urge to turn down an acquisition offer at 10x what they thought they were worth earlier in the year, because they think they can get more. A few months later, fear sets back in as the market adjusts and the likelihood of a less attractive round of financing sets in. You’ve likely heard people describe successful startups as a rollercoaster, and maybe you’re prepared for that, but you need to be prepared for everyone associated with your company to be on their own unique rollercoaster, often driven by entirely different factors.” — Paul Murphy @ The Case Against Entrepreneurship, Dec 29th 2017

Exactly because these forces are so powerful, especially because it’s incredibly subjective for each individual and team, I wanted to bring to us a moment of reflection inspired, for now, by two points.

Boldness of vision

One is the need to structure the energy that resides in the opposite side, far from fear and greed: boldness of vision. While boldness of vision won’t guarantee success for a start-up, it is a great force that will help with alignment for the team.

Asking for boldness of vision is not asking for a crazy drive towards the dangerous road of a dream. It is in fact an energy that is connected with the aim and the story; one that allows the entrepreneur to pull the energy for working out all the details, like removing stones when on bad roads.

But boldness of vision goes beyond the individual; it becomes a deal with the team and even with customers. For Christopher Lochhead, author of Play Bigger, “most of the rest of the world puts an innovation out and hopes for you and I to figure out why it matters.” [1]

That would be the situation of high instability. Instead, Christopher’s design model states that legendary entrepreneurs not only recognize the importance of a point of view; they act vigorously making sure their teams relate to that point of view (and the ones that don’t can be removed from the design effort.)

But this idea is not even limited to co-founders and their teams: it goes all the way to the board and the partners that are going to help the company grow:

“You want to back the entrepreneur, in the early stages, with the bold vision but the right judgement.” (Peter Bell, Silicon Valley partner at Highland Capital Partners)

Peter’s vision is a signal for us entrepreneur that smart VCs exist; a reminder asking the right level of awareness and partnership at all levels.

Self-awareness and tolerance for ambiguity

The other point, that helps the capacity of judgement, is the need for the entrepreneur to develop self-awareness. For Scott Belsky, author of Making Ideas Happen, “[with] increased self-awareness, we become better students of ourselves.”

For Scott, there are multiple ways to develop self-awareness: group therapy, personal advisory boards, circles, and more. The central idea is for leaders to allow themselves to benefit from psychological development.

“With greater self-awareness comes a greater tolerance for uncertainty. Patience in the face of ambiguity helps us avoid brash decisions driven by our emotions instead of our intellects.” (Belsky, 2010, p. 204)

Ben Horowitz, Silicon Valley investor and partner at A16Z, not only recognizes the psychological component as one of the most challenging CEO skills, but also says the toughness is due to the fact that every time a CEO communicates, there are strong consequences:

“In your darkest moments as CEO, discussing fundamental questions about the viability of your company with your employees can have obvious negative consequences. On the other hand, talking to your board and outside advisors can be fruitless. The knowledge gap between you and them is so vast that you cannot actually bring them fully up to speed in a manner that’s useful in making the decision. You are all alone.” — Ben Horowitz, 2011, What’s The Most Difficult CEO Skill? Managing Your Own Psychology

The recognition of the problem here allows us to face these factors and the fact that entrepreneurs need to establish a form of growth, one that starts with inner growth. It all starts with the recognition of these forces and how our emotions may drive us to actions. The more we dig for being aware, the more we should look for ways to act without being a victim of all the elements, yet not ignoring them.

References

Paul Murphy. (2017). The case against entrepreneurship [article]. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@paulbz/the-case-against-entrepreneurship-10c1e40b02b1

Belsky, Scott. (2010). Making Ideas Happen. London, England: Portfolio.

Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead, Kevin Maney. (2016). Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets.

[1] 2016, Churchill Club, Category Design: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Industries, Published on Jul 14, 2016 [video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RoFZG4MsnA

[2] 2016, Global Silicon Valley, 2016 GSV Pioneer Summit: Investing Legends of Silicon Valley, Published on Sep 22, 2016 [video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGuLluJzbQU