Ever felt like you had to do whatever it takes to succeed ? It seems the path to success for most entrepreneurs is an infinite series of such moments, intertwined with spurts of self-doubt but ultimately characterized by some form of sacrifice. A sacrifice which only they can pay the full price for. Only they? The conversation on entrepreneurship has evolved over the years, focusing more on the process than the individual, but how much of it is really organized chaos and what part of it is pure genius?
What makes an entrepreneur?
Our fascination with heroes has always made us more drawn to stories of self-made billionaires who succeeded against all odds. The ones who struck gold when no one thought they could, the underdogs, the guys no one gave a chance, the dreamers, the visionaries. But is this really fact or myth? Do you ever wonder at great examples of self-made success like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Jack Ma or Sara Blakely and think did they get where they are because of who they are or because of what they did or maybe both?
I know some of you must be asking Sara Blakely, who? She is a phenomenal entrepreneur, founder of the intimate apparel brand SPANX. Her success, like that of most entrepreneurs started with solving a problem, a wardrobe malfunction to be exact and she has focused on solving wardrobe woes ever since. Most studies on entrepreneurship and start-ups point out that success is a function of several factors, there is no consensus on the exact mix of factors but there are commonalities. Things that all successful entrepreneurs had working for them. These are:
· The strong desire to solve a real problem, meet a need or fill a market gap
· An unrelenting focus on the long-term
· Stickability and perseverance
· Impeccable timing and the ability to read market trends
· An understanding of their business from their consumer’s perspective
· A commitment to the highest standard of quality
· A touch of narcissism
As we learn more about the conditions and character attributes that make for great entrepreneurs we are drawn further and further into the light of their supernatural ability, so that we often miss the fact that their greatest victories emerged from an even darker place, a place of extraordinary self-sacrifice and perseverance. A place of whatever it takes.
So, what makes a whatever it takes moment?
Despair, confusion, self-doubt, rejection, loss, fear but above all a feeling deep inside that no matter what is going to be thrown your way, you will face it and overcome. You cannot lose, you will either win or try again with a little bit more wisdom. This ability to rise more times than you fall, this unique vision to see beyond current circumstances is the hallmark of all great entrepreneurs. For some this audacity is viewed as hubris or excessive narcissism but this is the weight that all entrepreneurs must bear. The sleepless nights, the unsuccessful pitches, the rejection emails , the questions from family, the painful feeling of wondering whether you will be able to pay your staff next month, the bills, the probing demons of self-doubt. It is from the cauldron of these dark moments that real entrepreneurs are made. It is in this place that something changes. Without conviction you cannot make it out and even if you do, you are never the same. For whatever it takes, takes exactly that-everything you have to give and more.
Flowers bloom on pavements
After Steve Jobs returned to Apple, after being fired from the company that he had started, he had one great fear. That all his innovations would one day be quickly forgotten. To some, he was a great entrepreneur; to others an intolerant narcissist who suffered no fools. Whoever he was is irrelevant to this story, because what matters is what he went through and how he was able to rewrite his story. Emerging from the darkest of moments in his career to create something that would later become one of the most valuable brands in the world. “The whatever it takes moment” plays heavily on our fears, in particular our fear of failure. We think to ourselves of the million things that could go wrong, but ultimately decide to focus on that one path that will lead us to success.
Most motivational books and entrepreneurial biographies paint a picture of extraordinary men and women. People much like us, but so much more unlike us. Everything they do seems to be larger than life. But if you look through the hyperbole, you’ll see their stories for what they really are: stories of people, stories of relationships, stories of sacrifice. They are different because when they got to that moment, that whatever it takes moment, they were prepared to pay the price. Not because they knew they would succeed. But because in that moment success took a whole new meaning. To succeed was to move forward. To succeed was to act. To succeed was to go beyond every bit and shred of self-doubt. And become that which they had envisioned. They decided to see what everyone else couldn’t see. Today’s society has sold us a lie, we now believe that to make an indelible mark in this world, we must possess some extraordinary ability. We are told to be independent. To harbor realistic expectations, to suppress our fears, our doubts. But the real truth is, for you to really find your place in this world you must face your fears. By expressing our fears, we gain greater clarity and understanding about what we value. And what we value will no doubt enlighten us on our passion and purpose and from there we will face adversity, not as a dead end, but a bridge to the best possible version of ourselves.
In Ashlee Vance’s biography of Elon Musk, we get a unique glimpse into those dark moments he had to face, from his unconventional childhood to his current exploits. From the moment he left his Stanford PhD program after 2 days to the time he started his first start-up Zip2 on $28000 dollars he got from his father; there was something deep inside him that made him realize he would be an entrepreneur and a successful one at that. He was prepared to pay the price. Zip2 raised US$ 3 million in its first round of investment. A moment that should have vindicated Musk, but investors pushed him from CEO to CTO, and by the time he sold Zip2 he got US$ 22 million. The rest of Musk’s exploits are well known, however when you look deeper there is more to him than the maverick-EV pioneer, rocket building, eccentric founder of Tesla & SpaceX. His real makings came from how he acted in his whatever it takes moments. He describes how he cried when he realized SpaceX escaped bankruptcy by a whisker. He raised the required funding in December 2008 hours before he would have gone bankrupt. He did whatever it took to save his company and whatever the future holds for Musk, be it conquering the global EV market or creating the first human settlement on Mars, one thing is certain- in those whatever it takes moments he will give it all he’s got and a little bit more.
Paying the Price
In ‘The Everything store, Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon’ by Brad Stone we learn a lot about the Amazon founder’s unrelenting competitiveness, from burning through US$ 170 million after buying Junglee to his fights against eBay and Apple-we see a picture of a man with uncompromising conviction. Sometimes it takes conviction to pay the full price of our whatever it takes moments. Sometimes it takes the highest level of perseverance and emotional intelligence. But whatever it takes, the price is never easy to pay. It’s not easy because it goes against our very primal drives. We are wired to avoid adversity, to seek safety, to seek companionship, appreciation, but more often than not the path of entrepreneurship is a lonely, cold and difficult one. For how can everyone see the vision you have for what it truly is? How can everyone comprehend the magnitude of the dream that to you is more than a dream but a reality in waiting? A reality in waiting, because deep down you know you will never be fully happy if you don’t try. If you don’t push yourself off that edge, without even knowing whether you land on your feet or crash. Conviction might give you the strength to pay the price but when you get to your destination will it be worth the cost? For many it is.
The other side
For some the whatever it takes moment unleashes an even bigger Monster, one that devours every little bit of integrity we have and makes those around us pay an even bigger price. Entrepreneurs take risks, this is an established fact. In most cases the risks often outweigh the benefits. This is one of the reasons we have a high failure rate in start-ups. Elizabeth Holmes, the infamous founder of blood testing start-up Theranos, was a celebrated entrepreneur who became the world’s youngest female billionaire after dropping out of Stanford at age 19. She, like most entrepreneurs, had a revolutionary idea, to run blood tests using a portable device that only required a fingerpick and a minute amount of blood. From this Theranos’s technology would be able to determine a wide range of medical conditions, including cancer.
Even though the science didn’t check out, our desire to believe in superheroes did. Holmes to many seemed like the female Steve Jobs the world had been waiting for, she ticked all the boxes and because of this no one decided to check that one box that mattered most. She was able to get investors’ money despite them not truly understanding how the technology worked. There were doubts, but the story was compelling, so it had to be true. In her whatever it takes moment she decided to deceive and mislead. She maintained a high level of secrecy at Theranos despite the company raking in millions in funding. By the time Theranos tech was exposed by the FDA, it was clear to see that sometimes people will choose to believe in an idea not based on its merit but on how it’s presented and by who presents it.
True Believers
Sometimes you must believe in the dream so much that you become the dream. This is dangerous for several reasons but perhaps the most important reason being that we are all human. True believer entrepreneurs create cults, not companies and often their success is a harbinger for something far worse. To conquer the whatever it takes moment we must all have a strong belief and conviction in our dream, but that dream should never become our identity. It can personify our values but beyond that we should realize that we are human and like all humans we have flaws. Enter the super founder CEO – there are entrepreneurs who have believed so much in their ideas that they have destroyed everything they worked so hard to build. This is an interesting paradox--the most vital ingredient for our success is sometimes the very reason why we fail.
The super founder CEO focuses more on aligning people to his/her interpretation of the business than in creating an environment where team members can express themselves to realize a more complete picture of the goal. By shutting out any form of criticism and rewarding ‘a flawed version of loyalty’, these entrepreneurs build opaque companies that stifle progress and create toxic work environments. This shifts our attention to a different dimension of the whatever it takes moment. The realization that although most whatever it takes moments are lonely moments, real successful entrepreneurs never make it alone. In that point of no return there are people that will help you through, and it is important to pick these people on merit and not just because they will blindly follow your vision, but because they will question it, they will have doubts, they will second guess you. Ultimately, they will help you create a better process, a better product, a more complete blueprint. Without these people our whatever it takes moments are not just lonely but altogether pointless.
What’s your whatever it takes moment?
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