Be the AK47
Embodying creative efficiency in your life and work.
We can all agree that having a business presence in 80+ countries in the world is truly admirable. Leaving your keystone product largely unchanged since 1947 while continuing to expand only adds to the allure. So what is it about the legendary AK47 that makes it indispensable? And what can we learn from this incredible machine to become more successful and spread our visions wider than we ever thought possible?
The Avtomat Kalashnikova (translating to Kalashnikov’s automatic machine) came into existence after WWII. Invented by Mikhail Kalashnikov and first used by the Soviet military in 1949. The AK47 has changed very little since then, yet continues to be the most dominant weapon on the Planet.
In a way, I grew up with the AK47. Albeit never actually owning one, other than a loose bullet my dad kept as a souvenir.
My grandfather, Ilya, was a career military officer since the beginning of WWII. My father had also undergone several years of mandatory Soviet officer training. There was plenty of military lore to be spread in my family and I was, and am, quite a receptive learner. While not all stories resonated from my family’s time in uniform, the legend of the AK47 always piqued my interest. Not so much for its eponymous killing power, but more for the machine’s unequivocal efficiency.
My father told me stories about timed exercises disassembling and reassembling an AK47. A task he performed at the top of his class and could even do blindfolded. Through this repetitive exercise, he found out what makes the AK tick.
“All its parts are loose.” He would say,
“Minimizing friction and reducing the likelihood of jamming.”
You don’t have to take my pops’ word for it, The Economist confirms that loose fitting parts create an advantage when faced with adverse conditions. Snow, ice, sand, mud, and water will render an M16 or any of its western friends useless. The AK however, doesn’t rely on perfection, the space between the parts allows for the sand and mud to be present and not interfere with the mechanics.
From the beginning, the AK47 was designed for versatility. Adding to the versatility of the machine itself was the USSR’s distribution model. Using today’s blockchain lingo, the AK47 was open source! Any allied country could receive a shipment of Soviet-made AKs but was also welcome to build their own. Needless to say, not all AK’s were created equal, as anyone who’s ever seen a Chinese AK could attest. But the concept behind the distribution was ahead of its time.
So much so that I have modeled myself and my business after the AK47. No, I’m not a killing machine, and no, I don’t hang on the shoulders of terrorists and revolutionaries alike. But I’m versatile as fuck and can figure out a solution in even the most horrendous conditions (perhaps that’s just Russian genealogy at play!). I also choose genius and abstraction, over seeming perfection and rigidity.
The latter point is a constant work in progress. Continuously reinforced by the brilliant Nomads I work with daily at DéWarrior Unlimited. Last week, for example, our team received some incredible news — acceptance into a coveted alliance of decentralized AI innovators (more on this soon!). While most teams would spend the long, Independence Day weekend relaxing and celebrating — I asked for all hands on deck. With new partners and connections, more is expected of us and it was a prime time to raise the bar.
I provided a deadline for completion of all work including brand new presentation decks and a completely revamped website, but mentioned that,
“If anyone finds themselves in a flow state coming towards a deadline, let me know and ignore the deadline.”
Like an AK47, I believe a business should have room for spontaneous bursts of creativity. A missed soft deadline may get a few egos tied in a knot, but it will seldom have any meaningful impact on the project as a whole. Yet an extra day or three spent fully engaged in a creative flow state, may just produce revolutionary results.
Genius is born not in the planning of the smallest details but in the loose space between the parts. Business models far too often praise accountability, deadlines, and results. While proving to be consistent in their deliverables, these models often fail to inspire. The result is a template laden heap of generic bullshit. A tangible absence of all authenticity. Something I would urge anyone passionate about their brand to avoid at all costs.
The world is likewise opening more and more to the AK’s original concept of decentralization. While decentralization in the 1960s meant AK factories in China and Yugoslavia, today this concept has more to do with the spread of ideas and computer code. Open source code is all the rage these days, and for good reason. Democratizing technology and knowledge is the only way for our society as a whole to level up.
Examining the case of the AK47, I feel that all genius inventions, companies, and movements share similar qualities. Elegance, democracy, authenticity, and the ability to address a plethora of problems with simplicity. Albeit, in the case of the AK, addressing them with homicide. But homicide aside, we can all learn something from this incredible invention…
Don’t let the proverbial sand or mud deter our mechanism from working. Always stay loose and flexible.
Give our gifts to anyone that needs them. This will spread our good work further and wider than we ever expected.
And most importantly…
Be responsible.
Responsibility is our and AK’s ability to respond. Responsibility is knowing that in any situation, the human or mechanical machine will be ready. True responsibility is indeed in the knowing. Spending less time worrying or preparing for contingencies by trusting the mechanism will not fail when it's needed. Loose enough to allow for creative abstractions, but tight enough to kill.
