Unto The Breach! » Leadership

"Goals are the Plotline to our Lives": More on Athletics as Sources of Inspiration

Tom — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:16:17 +0000

“Climbing is simple. Ascent is an ideal. Doing becomes understanding.

I think of route names as story titles: rich, fleeting and individual. We tell these stories over our modern-day campfires – blogs, Web sites, books and catalogs – in equal parts homage and interest.

The depth of each story is proportionate to the protagonist’s commitment to his goal, the complexity of the mountain and the simplicity of the style. We are entertained, but an astute few may learn and go on to build upon these stories, creating new stories of their own. Innovation inspires.

Motivation is the ultimate clean energy. So fueled we try, and usually fail, to reach our summit goal. Bargaining for better conditions, a stronger self or a bluer sky. Trading success to live another day. But success, when achieved, is empty. By attaining the goal we lose it, and then we are lost again. Goals are the plotline to our lives.

We return to the canvas of the mountains, to plot a new route or to combine four summits into a single traverse. We restrict the means at our disposal. Climbing a route on a mountain to its summit and returning in alpine style – without fixed ropes, bottled oxygen, blood doping, Sherpa support – is simplicity refined.

We go simply. Climb well. Action is the message.”

-Steve House

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On Leadership through Leadership

Tom — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:25:37 +0000

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Quote Du Jour

Tom — Fri, 23 May 2008 23:31:24 +0000

I love this quote…it is describes startup-ing and also reminds me of the modern day movie Gladiator.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
– Teddy Roosevelt

Hat tip to Matt McCall

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The Impact of Goals

Tom — Mon, 05 May 2008 00:11:24 +0000

These days, most of my riding buddies are a little burnt out on racing. After 4 or 5 years of spending a summer doing a race every other weekend or so, most of us have decided that this summer we just want to have fun riding. It’s not uncommon: bike racing is grueling. Of all the sports I’ve done in my life, bike racing is by far the hardest. Quite frequently people race for a few years and then quit. They don’t quit riding, they just graduate from racing.

A couple of my riding buddies have also noticed that without a racing schedule to prepare for, they have no obvious fitness goals, and subsequently their fitness has suffered. What will get them out riding when the weather is foul or when relatives are in town?

Enter my friend Mark. Mark decided that he needed a goal that would ensure he would be as fast on a bike as he was in the good old days, way back before he turned 40. Mark had heard me rave about the Laramie Enduro in summers past, and decided that this one 75-mile monster of a race would be the focus of his training this spring and summer. For most mortals, it’s less of a race and more just a personal challenge: it will take me about 8 hours of hard riding to finish – if I’m able. Two weeks ago, Mark committed to racing the Laramie Enduro at the end of July.

I too needed a goal for the summer. I’ve been eating more and exercising less, and I needed some motivation to turn that around. And, I’ll be damned if I will let my riding buddy do my favorite race without me. I really had no choice but to also commit to riding in the Enduro.

Other riding friends were apparently in similar situations. In a plainly evident snowball effect, John, Liam, Sasha, Jim, Steve have all now also registered.

Here’s where it gets really cool: we’re all friends, and most of us have ridden together quite a bit. Since we all committed a couple of weeks ago, we’ve had Laramie on our mind, and we’ve been talking about our training, and been getting out on more and longer training rides. Without the goal, there surely would have been less training and more excuses to not ride. The BHAG has been clearly motivating and focusing for all of us.

Thanks, Mark, for being a leader and helping us to adopt a worthy goal. It’s been focusing and motivating.

I wonder what other personal and professional goals I should adopt.

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Warren Buffet Fan Club

Tom — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:03:15 +0000

A student transcribed a recent Buffet talk, and it’s well worth reading, even by Buffet standards.

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Wisdom of the Day #2

Tom — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 23:38:01 +0000

Success is driven by vision and conviction and not by following directions.
- Furqan Nazeeri, in summarizing what he learned about a characteristic of successful CEO’s.

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It's a Marathon, not a Sprint

Tom — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 23:48:01 +0000

Contrary to our society’s romanticized vision of an entrepreneur’s life, success takes a long time to come (if it ever does). While there are famous counter-examples, in the overwhelming number of cases, success takes years and even decades of hard work.

I post on this topic today because it’s a particularly important issue to me, because it’s come up quite a bit in the last six months in talking with lots of other entrepreneurs, and because of an article in today’s WSJ entitled The Other Tech CEO’s Find It’s Not Easy To Keep the Faith (subscription required).

Not so many years ago, I myself was sucked into the myth of “work fanatically, to the exclusion of everything else, and you’ll strike it rich, and then be able to take it easy”. Through the school of hard knocks I have been reformed, and I now realize that the time to live the life I want is now. In Dave Matthews’ words, “the future is a terrible place to put your better days.” Just to add a fourth cliche-containing sentence to this paragraph, I’ll add that I now ascribe to the “the journey is the reward” approach.

I still enjoy being an entrepreneur, and I am still known for a strong work ethic, but I no longer do it to the exclusion of other things in life that are important to me (primarily family, friends and fitness). I aspire to be an entrepreneur for the duration, and, Allah willing, my duration will last for decades. Therefore my tenure as an entrepreneur has to coexist with my other life goals, as opposed to temporarily supplanting them.

Work-life balance is an extremely common challenge for passionate entrepreneurs. I’ve known quite a few entrepreneurs, and the vast majority struggle with this. It is extremely difficult to master the balance between an entrepreneur’s passion to change the world, his responsibilities to the various constituencies of his company, and his other life goals and passions.

I’ve heard some say that it’s not possible to have a balanced life while being CEO of a startup, and I’ve heard others say that balance leads to better (and longer-lasting) stewardship of a startup. I’m out to be a poster child for the latter.

Commensurate with the importance and difficulty of mastering this issue, I think about it often. I would enjoy your comments and perspectives.

PS – I think that I first heard phrase “it’s a marathon, not a sprint” applied to entrepreneurialism and startups by Terry Gold. Thanks Terry!

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