The Resilient Entrepreneur, Edition #56
Hi there
I hope you had a great week!
Here are the topics in today's edition:
- From Sales to Code: Why Founders Need a Broad Skill Set
- Black Swans or Ravens? Surviving in a World of Constant Crisis
Please reach out if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for articles!
Talk soon 👋
Tom
KickKerK
LEADERSHIP FOR RESILIENT ENTREPRENEURS
From Sales to Code: Why Founders Need a Broad Skill Set
Connecting the dots across different roles is required to solve complex challenges.
Sales. Investor Relations. Accounting. Customers. Product. Bug fixing. ISO 27001 certification. HR. Finding partners. Communications. Trade shows.
As the Founder & CEO of Yonder, I am involved in most of these activities even though I have a capable team of 25 people. You might argue that it doesn’t make sense for a CEO to be involved in all those activities, but I am convinced it does. Why? Because as a founder, I am an all-rounder rather than an expert, and all-rounders are good at connecting the dots.
An expert focuses on one single craft or competence, trying to become better and better in his or her domain. Being very good or even the best at something is a valuable asset that can be monetized very handsomely — until that craft or competence becomes obsolete. History tells us many stories of crafts and competencies that suddenly became obsolete.
In contrast, an all-rounder maintains a wider set of skills, at the expense of not reaching expert level in any of those skills. Whilst the all-rounder might not reach the pay level of an expert for an individual craft or competence, he or she can rely on a much wider set of skills — and oftentimes, the combination of wildly different skills leads to creative solutions that make all-rounders super valuable.
Here are some examples of how I apply connecting the dots in my daily grind as an entrepreneur.
Most Problems Are Complex Problems
There is a saying that the flutter of a butterfly’s wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. That’s how complex and connected our world has become.
Try to find solutions to such complex problems using an expert’s view. Most probably the top butterfly researchers and the top typhoon experts never talk to each other, so some connections between that flutter and that typhoon will go unnoticed forever.
First, complex problems can’t be solved with simple solutions. Or rather, they can’t be solved with one-dimensional solutions. Whilst experts are often involved in complex problems, they often lack the multi-dimensional view that unearths the connections between that flutter and that typhoon.
All-rounders take a different approach here. Whilst the depth of their skills might be lower than those of experts, they usually built their general skills out of many different specific skills. And the true art of all-rounding is to connect the dots between wildly different skills to foster new, innovative solutions to complex problems.
Second, no two complex problems are the same. Whilst expert skills help you solve narrow problems beautifully, all-rounder skills can be applied to any new situation. And each new problem in today’s world tends to be a complex problem.
Good-bye Good Times, Hello Dire Times
The last 30 years were one huge party. Prosperity grew year on year, and with it did the focus on the individual. At the same time though, some big problems started developing underneath the hood, without much notice at first: Climate change. Return to power politics and wartime. Pandemics. Inflation. Energy security.
The list could be expanded, but that’s not the point here. The point is that pandemics and energy security are as connected as that flutter of a butterfly and that typhoon. And still, most governments maintain separate health and energy security agencies.
Enter the all-rounders. Dire times with new problems require a general skill set to find good solutions to those complex problems.
What is true for government, is true for business. Any entrepreneur who has built something out of nothing knows what dire times mean: You start with no money and with no experts. And that’s exactly what’s needed in dire times — people who roll up their sleeves and do a lot with little, in an uncertain world.
Creative Solutions
Why are many large organizations considered boring? Because stuff gets done in isolated teams, if at all. Within a single team, you usually don’t have all the knowledge and skills required to solve a complex problem. Plus large organizations tend to suffer from organizational politics, where egos are more important than the collective.
Enter all-rounders. They don’t know anything. They only know about connecting different chunks of information, and about synthesizing solutions from these chunks of information.
That’s when creative solutions are born. Creativity is seldom created in isolation, but when different people with different skills interact: When a people person without any IT knowledge talks to a die-hard software engineer who calls himself a caveman, for example.
Somebody has to orchestrate those different people, connecting the vastly different knowledge and skills without putting him- or herself on the center stage. That’s the all-rounder.
Zoom In, Zoom Out
It’s easy to be carried away by irrelevant details, and it’s also easy to forget the relevant details because you think you have to focus on the big picture.
Dwight Eisenhower paid detailed attention to the weather developments in the weeks and days before D-Day. Given the thousands of vessels that needed coordination on D-Day, paying detailed attention to the weather might look distracting and irrelevant. However, have you considered the tides, the moonshine, or the wind conditions for the fragile glider planes that were a key element in the operation?
It’s the same in business: Generating revenues and building a great product are the key objectives of any business. However, can you succeed without paying attention to currency fluctuations, business continuity processes, or building a network of local partners in that specific country in the Middle East where you are chasing an opportunity?
Zooming in and out is a key skill. It helps you ask critical questions and spot unrealistic assumptions.
Stay Humble
Last but not least, this is the most important point.
Sometimes, you work on a big, flashy dot. And sometimes, you work on a tiny dot barely visible in the overall picture. Always remember that every dot is required to make up a great solution and that the tiny dots deserve quality work from quality people, too.
CRISIS MANAGEMENT FOR RESILIENT ENTREPRENEURS
Black Swans or Ravens? Surviving in a World of Constant Crisis
The age of rare crises is over. Here is what comes next.
Once upon a time in the West, there were 30 years without crises. Between 1990 and 2019, we enjoyed an endless upturn, growing wealth, less pain, and thus more time for self-actualization.
When the odd crisis occurred once in a decade, people would talk about a “black swan” — a term borrowed from Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable”, written in 2007.
Well, how improbable are high-impact events in today’s world? Let’s compare the period from 1990 to 2019 to the troubled times we currently live in.
Black Swans Are Rare
Black swans are rare, explaining the times the book was written. 2007 was just about halfway between 1990 and 2019, which was the period when the West lived the life of a lifetime without much crisis.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb describes the black swan as having three properties: First, a black swan is an outlier event. Second, its impact is extreme, either positive or negative. Third, black swans have retrospective predictability: Once they have occurred, it becomes pretty obvious that something like that could happen.
The best example of a black swan is the COVID-19 pandemic, which also concluded the good times of 1990 to 2019. It was only a matter of time before a pandemic would break out, and I’m sure it wasn’t the last pandemic we’ll see during our lifetimes.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic set loose a few other things that laid the foundation for the troubled times we currently live in:
Governments spent a ton of money on supporting businesses during the pandemic, leaving the coffers empty after the end of the pandemic. We now feel it when the continent is trying to rearm without breaking debt ceilings and other peace-time constructs.
By enforcing anti-pandemic measures such as the obligation to wear masks or get vaccinated, populations were split and polarized, setting the ground for more polarized politics. Hello Donald.
During the pandemic, we forgot that Russia started a territorial war already in 2014.
During the pandemic, we also forgot that climate change is rapidly accelerating.
Last but not least, as soon as Russia started its full-scale war against Ukraine in 2022, it became obvious how dependent on Russian energy Europe is.
Do you still think the black swan theory reflects our troubled times?
Enter the Age of Ravens
Let’s change the animal here. Ravens are seen as clever problem solvers. In contrast, their eerie calls associate them with the mysterious and unknown. In many mythologies, ravens are connected to life, death, and the afterlife. And in contrast to black swans, ravens are numerous and operate in flocks.
Doesn’t the image of ravens reflect our times much better than the image of the black swan? In the years to come, we will have to deal with multiple connected crises. Just like ravens, expect the crises to act cleverly, and to coordinate between them like a flock of ravens.
There isn’t a world without crises. The ravens just enjoyed a 30-year vacation, like all of us in the West did.
About Me
Growing a company 📈 in uncertain times 🔥🧨 is like running a marathon—it demands grit, strategy, and resilience.
As a tech entrepreneur 💻, active reserve officer 🪖, and father of three 👩👦👦, I share practical insights and experience on entrepreneurship and resilience in The Resilient Entrepreneur, my weekly newsletter.
When I'm not solving problems, I recharge and find inspiration in the breathtaking mountains 🏔️ around Zermatt 🇨🇭.
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