The Resilient Entrepreneur, Edition #139
Hi there
I hope you had a great week!
Here are the topics in today's edition:
- Entrepreneurs vs. The Cozy Guys: Clash of Culture
- The Wind of Change: Big Bang or Cooking the Frog Slowly?
Please reach out with comments, questions, or suggestions for articles!
Talk soon,
Tom
TACTICS FOR RESILIENT ENTREPRENEURS
Entrepreneurs vs. The Cozy Guys: Clash of Culture
When entrepreneurial action meets cozy people doing nothing, the tone might get a little more aggressive. Don’t be pulled off by it.
Entrepreneurs are doers. Doing is like talking, just harder. Doing separates entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs: It’s better to prioritize speed over perfection and start doing things instead of sitting there and talking about starting soon.
That’s what I am trying to do as often as possible. Often, it takes a high form of self-discipline to get started. But people often don’t like that inconvenient guy who takes action and disturbs their cozy world.
Here are a couple of real-life examples.
Comment 1: “You know everything better”
In one of my side projects, I was involved in modernizing a completely outdated website. Because I was the only person in the group with some IT experience, I proposed a very simple but modern solution.
The committee approved my proposition; we implemented it within weeks and migrated the 1000+ registered users without problems.
So far, so good.
A few weeks after the website project, I dared to ask a few questions about the financial situation during a committee meeting.
One of the cozy guys woke up. “After you think you know how to design a website, now you start asking financial questions. Do you think you know everything better than the others? Why don’t you run to be the president of this committee?”
I’m sorry, I just asked some questions. And yes, they might disturb your cozy world a little. No need to be rude, dude.
Comment 2: “You’re so aggressive”
Change of scene. As the Founder & CEO of Yonder, a B2B SaaS company, we are selling to quite a few public sector companies. It’s an open secret that some people in public sector companies prefer a cozy work environment over a fast-paced one.
A few weeks ago, I was in a meeting with one of those cozy guys. He had an open task from the last meeting to pass on some contacts within his organization for us to set up a meeting with them.
He didn’t do it. I mean, it’s a ton of work, really. You just have to look up their addresses in Outlook, maybe inform them that we will contact them, and that’s it. And the guy didn’t do it since the last meeting one month ago.
I intervened. The open task was in the open items list of the last meeting’s minutes, and I asked until when it could be done. The guy said he had so much to do, but would try his best.
What did he do after the meeting? No, he didn’t work on his overdue task and get it out of the way. He complained about me to another participant in the meeting: “Tom is so aggressive.” Because I asked until when his overdue task could be done.
Conclusion
Should you be pulled off by such comments? No! The world needs more problem-solvers, and that involves taking a stand, even if some people don’t like you.
Keep on doing what you’re doing, and take it as a compliment when people make angry comments about you.
STRATEGIES FOR RESILIENT ENTREPRENEURS
The Wind of Change: Big Bang or Cooking the Frog Slowly?
Everybody wants progress, but nobody wants change. What can you do? There are better strategies than the chainsaw.
Progress and change are odd twins: Everybody wants progress, but nobody wants change.
Take Artificial Intelligence as an example. This technology evolves at breakneck pace. As the technology advances, organizations and people struggle to adapt.
Climate change is another example. The climate changes faster than scientists anticipated, yet politics and people still don’t want to believe it’s true. And as a consequence, they do nothing.
If you think this phenomenon applies only to the large problems of our time, you’re wrong: It’s the same in every organization. People want progress, but they don’t want to change to get to the next level.
What can you do?
Strategy 1: Big Bang
If you read the news, you’ve likely come across Argentina’s Xavier Milei and his chainsaw. At every opportunity, he proposes slashing systems and ministries, firing people without replacing their positions, and even blowing up the central bank.
That’s a valid strategy if it’s really going badly. If you’re in deep shit and there is no other way out, wielding the chainsaw might be necessary. Looking back, the COVID-19 lockdowns were a big bang. From one day to the next, everything changed fundamentally, and drastic measures were put into place without political consultation. I guess 24th February 2022 was a similar situation in Ukraine: When Russia launched its full-scale invasion, everything changed immediately.
Strategy 2: Cooking the Frog Slowly
However, for many change projects in everyday life, a big bang would create more damage than benefit. Even if you see the desired end-state clearly, it’s often a bad idea to jump ahead too quickly.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not propagating a sit-and-wait strategy. I’m propagating a step-by-step approach that gets you ever closer to the desired end-state. In software development, people call this agile. I often call it cooking the frog slowly.
You all know the image of the frog that jumps out immediately when you throw it into hot water. In contrast, if you put the frog in a cold pond and gradually heat the pond, the frog gets cooked alive and fails to jump out.
Cooking the frog slowly is often associated with acting too slowly. But it’s a viable strategy to follow when you’re meeting resistance, even though you have a firm plan for your desired end-state. Introduce change slowly and steadily, and at some point nobody can resist it anymore.
Conclusion
I’m a firm defender of Western democratic values, and that’s why I’m reluctant to use China as a good example. However, the Chinese use a concept called strategic patience to slowly and steadily build their power in the world. That’s the kind of cooking the frog slowly I’m advocating to overcome resistance to change, also on a much smaller scale than building an empire.
One word of caution, however. If you cook the frog too slowly, you might be too late to implement the needed change. And then you will hit a wall, and you will be back at the big bang strategy.
About Me
I’m a tech entrepreneur, active reserve officer, and father of three — writing about entrepreneurship, leadership, and crisis management from hard-won experience. No AI, no fluff, no promos. Just plain-text insights for people building and leading under pressure.
When I’m not solving problems, I find clarity in the mountains around Zermatt.
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