85. FALL 7, RISE 8
I heard an old Japanese saying: “Fall seven times, rise eight.” This post is about rising eight.
In a Wall Street Journal article, Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino affirmed, “When Things Go Right, Figure Out Why.” She said that we need to learn from success.
She reminds us that we are often told to learn from our failures, less often to take advantage of opportunities to breed more success. The latter process begins, she says, by understanding where our successes come from: luck, hard work, talent? After every initiative, we need to conduct what the military calls “after-action reviews.” After these reviews, we may discover surprises about what led us to success. Collecting data and applying it with discipline are also important, and often it is wise to seek outside perspectives.
In a recent issue, Inc. magazine featured the following people who “rose eight times.”
How I got myself to America as a child (and went on to start an Inc. 5000 company) is the story of Jerry Joo, CEO and co-founder of Retention Science. He grew up in a very loving family in Taiwan where he never felt he lacked anything and didn’t realize until he got older that his family was poor.
At 13, he willed himself to America where through a connection with an uncle, he took advantage of all the good education he could get. With his co-founder, Joo kept making mistakes with employees but finally figured out what was needed. They hired more experienced people and success followed.
How I didn’t get that MBA (and still started a billion-dollar company) is the story of Jen Rubio, whose family moved from the Philippines to New Jersey when she was seven. She had some tough times adapting to America and its language. However, with outside connections and a clear purpose, Jen and her colleagues brought Warby Parker to success.
How I proved the VCs were wrong is the story of Tope Awotona, founder of the Atlanta-based online scheduling startup, Calendly. He ran into a common problem for Black founders in securing venture capital funds. “The experience taught him to stretch every dollar so that he’d never have to rely on outside funding. He credits his family in Nigeria for showing him the way.” His business is now at $30 million in recurring revenue and is growing more than 100% year-over-year.
How I alienated my employees — and then rebuilt my company’s culture is the story of Steve Huffman who co-founded Reddit. Earlier he had left the company; however, he later returned in order to challenge the culture of the company. People quit in the first days of his return, and only about half remained at the end of that first year, but they kept going.
There was fear and resistance to change. Huffman felt that the company was actively committing suicide. He reflected, “Reddit is an incredible place. It works even when we’re trying to kill it, so what would happen if we actually did a good job?” He began to value values, and the first one was “evolve.”
How I learned to run my husband’s business after he died is the story of Mary Celeste Beall, who at 42 and the mother of five, had to learn how to run the Tennessee resort, Blackberry Farm, while shouldering the burden of devastating grief. “I hadn’t run a hotel before, and I was scared. I had no plan, but I knew I wanted to keep Sam’s vision for Blackberry alive — for our children, for Sam, for myself, and also for our team. (There are over 750 of us.)”
“It was great for all of us to have something new to think about. … A big part of how I’ve been able to do this has been delegating, trusting, and believing in people. … We let ourselves make some crazy decisions. That’s what makes it magic.”
Q: What helps you to rise for eight?
