The Hard Thing About Hard Things

“That’s the hard thing about hard things – there is no formula for dealing with them.” – Ben Horowitz

Lessons learnt: There are no rules in Entrepreneurship. Take care of people, products, profits – in that order.

Many books start with titles such as ‘How to cook a meal in 5 minutes’ or ‘With these 3 steps you will succeed in life’. Ben Horowitz has chosen the exact opposite, in The Hard Thing About Hard Things he argues that there are no simple solutions. In entrepreneurship, he states you have to figure out everything as you go along.

This doesn’t mean his book is without advice or practical tips. The latter chapters contain many guiding questions and thought activating statements. But these are all based on his own experience, express his view and don’t – in no way – pretend to be a one-size-fits-all solution. So let’s get to it.

Lessons from my 20’s-40’s 

The first chapters of the book deal with Ben Horowitz’s own life experiences (from boyhood to selling Opsware). In it, he describes how he made a friend (“Do not judge things by their surface”) and what he believes leadership is (“The ability to get someone to follow you even if only out of curiosity”). And only shortly after introducing us to his life he jumps into business.

One of the sub-chapters is called “If you are going to eat shit, don’t nibble”, so that was it for the niceties. With this Horowitz means to say that you should face the facts, don’t hide behind beautiful projections, see what is going on and adapt! In the chapter “I will survive” he motivates the reader to ask different questions – which relates perfectly to a recently reviewed book, A More Beautiful Question. He argues not to reconsider set rules and see how you can serve your customers in non-traditional ways.

From having 60 days of cash left to selling his business to HP, Horowitz describes the roller-coaster in all its honesty. Whilst reading it you will be stunned by how resilient (or ignorant) he was the whole time. With his vision, he turned nothing into $1.65 Billion. So what did he learn on the way there?

It’s Still Very Difficult

The Struggle – fighting for your company, being alone, the land of broken promises – is where greatness comes from. It is through hardship that you learn the most. But going through hardship is not easy and many people would rather give up. For them Horowitz has no advice to give, there are no shortcuts.

So “spend zero time on what you could have done, and devote all of your time on what you might do”. Don’t worry, be productive. And do this with other people at your side. These can be friends, but ideally are people who are specifically suited for the job you need to be done. And when looking for people hire for strength (being the best at a job) rather than lack of weakness (no bad qualities).

How to be a CEO (sort-of)

The most difficult skill Horowitz acquired (or is still learning) is managing his own psychology. He states that he has become better at this by running a company, there is no other way. As CEO you have to be somewhere in between the following two extremes: 1) taking things too personally, and 2) not taking things personally enough. So yeah, that’s that.

““Well Get on with it Mothe—-.” – Russell “Stringer” Bell

Noways Horowitz runs one of the largest Venture Capitalist funds in the world. With it he invests is many companies such as Facebook and Skype. And when he meets new entrepreneurs he looks for two qualities – brilliance and courage. So once again I leave the question to you – do you have the guts?

Thinking in New Boxes

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things”. – Steve Jobs

Lessons learnt: To be creative, change your perspective. Diverge, converge and reevaluate – again, and again.

Think outside the box is a common saying, it’s also wrong. Thinking outside the box leads us to scout the horizon of what we are currently doing. It allows for discovery of related concepts, but won’t protect you from new innovations. Thinking in New Boxes, on the other hand, is focussed on changing your mind and sparking the next big idea. Join me in an analysis of this great book by Luc de Brandere and Alan Iny.

We people make sense of the world by using mental models. We fit things into categories (e.g. mammals, cars, friends and foes). And we tend to think in these mental models, or boxes. We use them to make the world manageable, it’s something we can’t do without. It reduces uncertainty, and people love that.

Thinking in boxes doesn’t sound like a recipe for creativity, and it isn’t. Thinking outside the box is a good first step, it asks a person to challenge the current but it lacks guidance on how to proceed. Thinking in new boxes does provide this guidance. It changes your thinking from deductive to inductive.

The framework (a box in itself) explains thinking in new boxes in 5 steps: (this may already challenge your thinking about creativity as a non-rigid exercise)

1. Doubt Everything – All your ideas are hypotheses – they are not set in stone
2. Probe the Possible – Ask questions to define the issues you want to address and objectives you want to accomplish
3. Diverge – Brainstorm on how to tackle the challenges
4. Converge – Test your ideas
5. Reevaluate Relentlessly –  Go back to step 1

Some 300 pages later you will know all there is to know about thinking in new boxes. The authors take their time to explain how each (relatively easy) phase works and use real-life examples and a fictional case to bring their point across. The last few chapters consider how to apply the framework (again, box) to creative problems and business strategy.

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything”. –  George Bernard Shaw

Thinking in New Boxes is a must read whether you are innovating, strategizing or leading change of any sort. It will let you doubt everything you do – in a good way.

huh

If you stop searching, you create the possibility that you discover you are already there

huh?! The Technique of Changing your Thinking by Berthold Gunster is all about taking a novel approach to situations that seem to be hopeless. It is not about the glass being half-full or half-empty, it is about a 3rd alternative. As one of the few Dutch (no translation available) books I have read recently it is certainly one of the more inspiring. In short chapters, full of funny examples, Berthold Gunster gets us out of the comfort zone and into change!

The five techniques on which the plenty applications are based read as follows.

1. Stop with thinking in the same direction as you used to; the reality can (and should) be shaped, it is not set.
2. Accept the reality; some things cannot be changed – stop fighting the wind.
3. Observe carefully; we see what we think – not what there is (it is biased).
4. Start with the premise that problems do not exist; problems are in our head – in reality there are only facts.
5. Learn to live with stress and instability; thinking in terms of satisfaction is troublesome – good is the enemy of greatness.

With these five techniques, you are now ready to change your thinking.

Of the 15 applications that are explored in the book I will explore only one. The technique of remembering (thinking back). The chapter concerning this technique starts with an urban legend. During the space race, the Americans were looking for a way to write in space, but their conventional pens did not work in space, so they invested millions in inventing a pen that could work in zero gravity. At the same time, Russia was faced with the same problems, they used a pencil. The key message is that a solution does not have to lay in the future, the answer may already be hidden somewhere in the past. The same applies when you have invented something new, you do not have to think about the future needs of people, but how can you satisfy a current need with your new product.

All 15 techniques

1. Wait

2. Accept

3. Validate

4. Respect

5. Persist

6. Focus

7. Remembering

8. Eliminate

9. Import

10. Collaborate

11. Seduce

12. Showcase

13. Change Roles

14. Unsettle

15. Invert

Each of the techniques has its own effect, timing and way it works. Together they can tackle almost any difficult situation and make your life a whole lot easier (and unstable, see the second paragraph). Not every technique is as clear-cut as the next. There is a strong key message: Changing your habits can have a tremendous positive effect. As a trainer for more than 300.000 people, Berthold Gunster has established a great reputation in this field. As his third book, this one gives actionable advice to people who want to implement the different techniques. Reading a chapter every few days is the recommended way to get the most out of it.

The Book:

huh?! de techniek van het omdenken – Berthold Gunster – ISBN-10: 902299404X| ISBN-13: 978-9022994047

More on huh?!:

http://omdenken.nl/ – The Official Website (Dutch)

http://www.ja-maar.nl/winkel/artikel/boeken–magazine/omdenken-in-relaties – Changing your Thinking in Relationships (Dutch)

http://www.ja-maar.nl/ – The Official Website of Ja Maar… (Dutch)

Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton is so well-known, we can’t even imagine a world without it. Of course, someone had to be the first person to think of it, to make the world and to make it come alive. The book is entertaining, exciting, and dangerously good. The same can be said about some of the movies that were made about it, yet still, I saw all the sequels. Here is some more from Wikipedia.

“In 1989, a series of strange animal attacks occur in Costa Rica and on the nearby fictional island of Isla Nublar,[8] the story’s main setting, one of which is a worker severely injured on a construction project on Isla Nublar, whose employers refuse to disclose any information about. One of the species is eventually identified as a Procompsognathus. Palaeontologist Alan Grant and his paleobotanist graduate student, Ellie Sattler, are contacted to confirm the identification, but are abruptly whisked away by billionaire John Hammond — founder and chief executive officer of International Genetic Technologies, or InGen — for a weekend visit to a “biological preserve” he has established on Isla Nublar.”

I also read The Andromeda Strain.

Here is some more from my exploration of the story structure:

You: researcher and other characters, not really focussed.

Need: Hammond needed to change the world, make dino’s come alive again

Go: go to the park, make the animals live again

Search: show the park, see what is there, explain how it’s done

Find: see what has been done there, amazing

Take: ahhh panic, animals attack, longest part here

Return: fight for survival, barely make it many times

Change: know that nature is not a computer. And some animals are running around the world XD. And island is bombed.

The Andromeda Strain

I liked this sci-fi book, The Andromeda Strain, by Michael Crichton (who also wrote Jurassic Park) as it’s a short book that explores a new idea in a novel way. The book is about an extraterrestrial virus/life-form that they have to study to know how to deal with it. There is enough tension in the book, enough good thinking, and some good science. The conversation/writing isn’t the best ever but still very decent. Here is some more from Wikipedia.

“The Andromeda Strain is a 1969 techno-thriller novel by Michael Crichton documenting the efforts of a team of scientists investigating the outbreak of a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism in Arizona.

A military satellite returns to Earth. Aerial surveillance reveals that everyone in Piedmont, Arizona, the town closest to where the satellite landed, is apparently dead. The duty officer of the base tasked with retrieving the satellite suspects that it returned with extraterrestrial contamination and recommends activating Wildfire, a protocol for a government-sponsored team intended to contain threats of this nature.

The team of scientists believes the satellite, which was intentionally designed to capture upper-atmosphere microorganisms for bio-weapon exploitation, returned with a deadly microorganism that kills by nearly instantaneous disseminated intravascular coagulation (lethal blood clotting). Upon investigating the town, the Wildfire team discovers that the residents either died in mid-stride or went “quietly nuts” and committed bizarre suicides. Two Piedmont inhabitants—the sick, Sterno-addicted, geriatric Peter Jackson and the constantly bawling infant Jamie Ritter—are biological opposites who somehow survived the organism… etc”

Writing That Works

“If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; If what is said is not what is meant, then what ought to be done remains undone.” – Confucius

Lessons learnt: First things, first. Keep it simple – keep your audience on target. Write with a purpose. And the lessons learnt in writing are as relevant in presentations, talks, emails, and so forth.

Improve your writing, make it easier and give yourself a confidence boost. That is what the back of Writing That Works by Kenneth Roman and Joep Raphaelson promises – and they deliver. In less than 200 pages they take the reader on a journey along the basics of effective writing. First, they tackle the most common mistakes we all make, like mumbling, writing too difficult, or non-specific. After that the book tackles specific areas such as writing for audiences, writing a report that makes things happen, and how to write a resume. If you want to know how to communicate effectively (in business), then this book may be something for you!

“Write. Rewrite. When not writing or rewriting, read. I know of no shortcuts.” – Larry King

Writing That Works was originally written on a typing machine. Still many of the chapters remain virtually unchanged. One that has been added is on writing an email. The authors show that they can get along with Generation X and provide some very useful tips on how to approach this constant distraction we have to deal with:

1. Limit the number of copies (i.e. do not copy unneeded persons on your e-mail)
2. Discuss ideas face to face (and prevent endless conversation threads)
3. Email only when it contains a) relevant new information, b) agrees to a request, c) responds to a question, or d) asks a question or makes a request

The chapter on writing for an audience is very illuminating. One thing to keep in mind is that your reader will always have a limited amount of time and will have other (non-congruent) motives than you. With that in mind Roman and Raphaelson state the following “Decks are a reality, the business tool that gets things done.” A presentation deck should be your tool of choice. It is best to follow this flow of logic: 1) objective, 2) background, 3) facts, 4) conclusions, 5) recommendations, 6) next steps. Consultants may argue to reverse 5, 4 and 3 and luckily the Pyramid Principle (by Barbara Minto, McKinsey) is discussed “The easiest order is to receive the major, more abstract ideas before the minor, supporting ones. And since the major ideas are always derived from the minor ones, the ideal structure of the ideas will always be a pyramid of groups of ideas tied together by a single overall thought.”

Along the chapters, the reader is informed of more specific concepts and general principles are applied to actionable areas. One of these is in writing your CV: the test of what to include is as simple as it is powerful – 1) Is it relevant? 2) Is it true? I myself would like to add a third question – 3) Is it consequent? In the last chapter, the art of making things easily readable is explained. Things like headings, casing and using white space are all explained. All in all the book features great tips and techniques that even the most experienced writer can make use of. A book on writing is important, but not very urgent.

Animal Farm

“Four legs good, two legs bad.”  – George Orwell

Lessons learnt: Without proper checks and balances leadership will always corrupt. A common cause unites. The collective memory is really short, and without language (knowing the right arguments/words) opposition is futile.

Imagine a world where animals can talk. Imagine a world where pigs start a revolution and take over a farm. Imagine a world where the pig’s initial promises and rules are twisted and turned for their own promotion and the domination over the rest of the farm. If you are like me, you might think the first two are for children’s books and that the latter is as plausible as can be. It is sad to realize that the story told in Animal Farm by George Orwell is one that has repeated itself throughout history so many times. At the same time, it also conveys some of the best qualities mankind has.

To give here a summary of the book would not be correct, it is only very short and is easily read in a couple of hours. Much more important, and interesting, is the message(s) it tries to convey. Written in 1945, it leans heavily on the events that happened in (and before) the Second World War. One of the pigs (named Napoleon) is said to represent Stalin and the actions he took in his life. Where he first overthrows the ruthless leader (the farmer), he later becomes corrupted himself. To cover his (and the rest of the leadership – read: communistic government) tracks, the rules (the 7 Commandments) are changed. This is something that we think of happening a long time ago, but when you hear of Russian government officials changing the Wikipedia page of the MH-17 crash, you start wondering if this is really in the past.

“Four legs good, two legs better! All Animals Are Equal. But Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others.” – George Orwell

 

Forbidden until 1989 in the Eastern Bloc, Animal Farm shows how strongly people believe in their own ideas and their right to only broadcast their ideologies. Everyone who is reading Animal Farm should be happy to live in a system where these kinds of things are not happening anymore, and if not to strive to make your country better and use it to recognize where things can go wrong. The book, however, is not for everyone. It requires your attention and you need to be aware of the history the analogies are about. I do believe that it is worth the few hours of reading and then please read some more about it.

Good to Great

“Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.” – Jim Collins

Five years after Built to Last (Jim Collins and Jerry Porras) Jim Collins is back with another extensive research on leadership, management and a basic how to run your company. This time the focus is shifted from the large corporations that have stood the test of time. He now looks at how to become great and stop being ‘merely’ good. Using a very large set of data (1,435 companies) and narrowing it down to 10 great and 10 good companies, the research is not something you can easily ignore. It is a great read and will definitely give you some food for thought!

In the first chapter ‘good’ is portrayed as the enemy of ‘great’. To transfer from the former to the latter he states you should succeed in three areas: 1) disciplined people, 2) disciplined thought, and 3) disciplined action. The first sign of these is found in the second chapter. Level 5 leadership is defined and examined. Level 5 leaders are not the people that usually make the cover of magazines, nor are they the ones that boss around people with great efficiency. They are the people that have the unusual mix of intense determination and profound humility.

5 – Executive – Building enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will

4 – Effective Leader – Catalyzes commitment to and vigorous pursuit of a clear and compelling vision, stimulating higher performance standards

3 – Competent Manager – Organizes people and resources toward the effective and efficient pursuit of predetermined objectives

2 – Contributing Team Member – Contributes individual capabilities to the achievement of group objectives and works effectively with others in a group setting

1 – Highly Capable Individual – Makes productive contributions through talent, knowledge, skills, and good work habits[/toggle]

Another key concept in Good to Great is ‘first who, then what‘. Only with the right people, in the right place, you can truly achieve greatness. This may mean you need to sacrifice in the short-term, having to hire only the very best can take much longer than taking a suitable candidate. Removing employees from positions where they feel comfortable – but are not actively contributing to your company – can also be a tough thing to do. In the long-term, however, Collins argues it can save you time, effort, and resources.

Doing many things well is good, it is something you may even make a profit with. Doing one thing great (The One Thing), however, makes for a much more compelling story. Collins names this the hedgehog concept. For this he compared the strategy of a fox – who can attack the hedgehog via 100 different strategies – to the hedgehog – who just rolls up. It is about doing one thing better than anyone in the world. To find what your hedgehog concept is Collins proposes three criteria: Determine what you can be best in the world at and what you cannot be best in the world at; 2) Determine what drives your economic engine; and 3) Determine what you are deeply passionate about.

Growing your business can be seen as pushing a log along a road. It is a hard thing to do, but once you get started it can keep on rolling. The flywheel concept is about making this push easier. It is about getting more people behind the log, making the road smoother, rolling along a decline, etc.. Reducing resistance and improving your capability to make your company grow. Many companies, however, do not embrace this thought and keep pushing uphill, get other to push back or push a log that is actually still a three. The flywheel concept turns the hedgehog competencies into positive momentum.

“Visionary companies pursue a cluster of objectives, of which making money is only one—and not necessarily the primary one.” – Jim Collins

In the rest of the book, other concepts are also mentioned. Collins speaks about discipline, technology, confronting the brutal facts, and more. All together they outline a few key things any company should adhere to. With many years of research and as a leading management consultant, Jim Collins has quite the reputation going for him. In Good to Great, he proves his knowledgeability and teaches about how to become a great company. Written five years after Built to Last, it actually features as a prequel, but both books can easily be read independently.

The 80/20 Principle

I just finished reading The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less by Richard Koch.

The main premise of the book is that 80% of outcomes are produced by 20% of causes. The most common example is that 80% of sales come from 20% of your clients. A more novel example is that 20% of a carpet gets walked on 80% of the time (which one company capitalized on by renting out tiles and reusing the good 80%).

The book can be highly recommended. Not every chapter might be as relevant for yourself, but even this Koch anticipates. He states that you should skip around the book to the parts that are for you.

What I find the most useful is the change in mindset that you have to go through. Not 50% of your activities lead to 50% of your outcomes. You should see your efforts as a logarithmic line, most of the outcomes are from a small part of the time/efforts. What you need to do is identify which are your most productive activities, which ones are least/counter-productive and try to maximize the first and eliminate the second.

Lazy Intelligent

In one of the later chapters, Koch comes up with a novel classification of (working)people. He divides them in lazy vs. hardworking, and dumb vs. intelligent. He states that the most productive people are the lazy intelligent. These are the people who are working in an area in which they know much (have expertise) and will do their best to eliminate all the tasks that they are not perfectly suited for. What I like about his definition is that intelligence is not used as a static term, he states that everyone is intelligent, you just need to work in the area in which you are smart.

The best example of this comes from one of the reviews that is featured in the last chapter of the book. It’s from a person who is now the leader of a school programme that helps children with learning disabilities. The teacher himself sometimes takes hours to find his car in the parking lot or forgets where he leaves things around the house. He himself has trouble with his memory. But he understood this in an early stage. Therefore he delegated all tasks that are remotely related to memorizing things and focus on building the programme from a leadership position (his intelligence).

Question of the day: What is your 20% time and how can spend more time there?