If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.
This has been my achilles heel as long as I can remember. I think all entrepreneurs are soloists to a certain degree. That mindset is absolutely necessary when working 80 hours a week just to get traction, but it will kill you if you want to build a company. There are several things I have done wrong along my journey as an entrepreneur. Here are a few, hope you take note and don’t make the same mistakes.
Mistake #1. I’m the smartest guy in the room.
I use the term smartest loosely. This can be literal IQ or just some area you are deficient in. There is an old saying, If you are the smartest guy in the room, you are in the wrong room. Recently a friend convinced me to join the EO, an organization of fellow entrepreneurs. We have forum meetings monthly much like board meetings, where we discuss problems and successes. I am not the smartest person in that room. Do whatever is necessary to get around other people who are “better” than you in the area you need to improve.
Mistake #2. I’m the BOSS.
Delegate tasks instead of leveraging people. I think the first time I heard this was from Tony Robbins. When you start a company, you are the boss, the accountant, the line worker, and the floor sweeper. You tell you what to do all the time…but you also have a vision. The vision of what might be, of the success you will have tomorrow. When employees are added to the mix, things get interesting. You will either delegate, tell people what to do, or you will leverage, connect people with your vision and then allow them to help you. If you delegate, you will create a hub and spoke model where everything flows through you. If the company grows it will reach a critical mass where it falls apart or shrinks back to your limited time and capabilities.
Connect the right people with your vision and see what happens. Steve Jobs was asked in an interview if he was ever wrong, after a pause and a chuckle he said, “all the time!”. He went on to say, at Apple they have created an environment where the best ideas win, not the people with the biggest ego. THE BEST IDEAS MUST ALWAYS WIN.
Mistake #3. Culture.
This elusive beast can catapult you into the stratosphere or chain you to the ground. It’s sad, but I had been in business for 20 years before culture came across my radar. Culture is difficult to define, requires constant maintenance, and is easy to mess up. The best book I have ever read on culture is What You Do Is Who You Are by Ben Horowitz. If you consistently have the same problems over and over, take note, it’s probably the culture. Here is an example.
We were having problems with shipping subpar quality print to our customers from time to time. The problem was sporadic, maybe once or twice a month. It was only a fraction of a percent of the orders, but it was still troubling to see the errors. It turned out to be a culture problem, not a quality issue. We pride ourselves on SPEED, QUALITY, and SERVICE. But, guess what we emphasize the most…speed. It’s first in the list and it’s easier to measure. So, when production speed comes head to head with quality, guess what wins? SPEED. This was totally unintentional and 100% culture. We remedied the problem by changing the order and the emphasis, now quality always comes before speed. Be aware, thoughtful, and intentional about the culture of your company. Culture is top down…it rests solely on the shoulders of the person in charge and it’s a HUGE DEAL.
People are the key and they are the only eternal things on the planet. Surround yourself with smart people. Leverage the talents and resourcefulness of others. Build a culture of excellence and choose to go far together.