The Resilient Entrepreneur, Edition #90
Hi there
I hope you had a great week!
Here are the topics in today's edition:
- In Tough Times, You Have to Leave Your Ego at the Door
- Can You Manage a Pandemic Using AI? A Thought Experiment
Please reach out if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for articles!
Talk soon 👋
Tom
KickKerK
LEADERSHIP FOR RESILIENT ENTREPRENEURS
In Tough Times, You Have to Leave Your Ego at the Door
The good times are over. Do we still have room for egos, office politics, and power games? As a leader, you should leave your ego at the door.
Entrepreneurs and military commanders have much more in common than you might think.
Why do I know? As the Founder & CEO of Yonder, a B2B SaaS company, and an active reserve officer in the Swiss Armed Forces, I can draw examples from both worlds.
However, with all the commonalities, there is a large variation in personality among entrepreneurs and military commanders. Some of them are down-to-earth and quietly doing their work, while others rely on status symbols and public clout.
I am of the first type. I hate status symbols, office politics, and ego shows. I have even left a well-paid corporate job because I decided I had different goals in life than participating in office politics.
During my last military career step, I came across a person of the second type. Here is a comparison of our different world views.
Mission First
It’s quite simple: The only mission of a startup is to solve a problem for its customers and make money doing so. The only mission of a battalion is to deliver its defined combat performance in support of the Armed Forces as a whole.
Down-to-earth leaders focus on getting the job done — in the military, we call this “mission first.”
Egocentric leaders don’t solve the pressing problems, but keep telling everyone how special their startup or battalion is. You can call it an excuse for not solving the pressing problems if you want.
Simplicity
Getting the job done in a startup or in a battalion is difficult. In today’s fast-changing world, customer needs and enemy tactics change faster than ever before. That’s why you will have to invest all your time and energy in making your organization work under those conditions.
Down-to-earth leaders know that simplicity beats complexity. The more complex a solution, the less likely it is to work in the real world.
Egocentric leaders weave their hunger for power and status into day-to-day work, complicating things for everybody.
Camaraderie
In the military, there is the concept of camaraderie. In a nutshell, it describes that a random bunch of people who haven’t chosen to work with each other need to survive and succeed in the adverse conditions of combat.
Down-to-earth leaders work with the team they have, well knowing that they depend as much on their team as the team depends on their leadership. In Switzerland, we call this one for all, all for one.
Egocentric leaders maintain an inner circle, give privileges to individual team members, and badmouth other team members behind their backs.
Conclusion
Of course, it’s not as black-and-white as I described it above. Nevertheless, the good times are over, and we are once again facing dire times. I leave it to you to assess if we still have room for egos in tough times, or if we should rather focus on solving the pressing problems together with our teams.
Is it naive to think that egos, office politics, and power games will disappear entirely when the ride gets tough? Maybe. But if you don’t start working on your own attitude, they will for sure not disappear.
CRISIS MANAGEMENT FOR RESILIENT ENTREPRENEURS
Can You Manage a Pandemic Using AI? A Thought Experiment
A thought experiment for entrepreneurs based on our experience with COVID-19, teleporting it into a world of technology and multiple crises
In today’s world, a lot can go wrong. Everything is connected, and the consequences of seemingly small events can be huge.
But today, let’s look at a huge thing that can go wrong: Pandemics. We have all experienced what a pandemic means back in 2020, when COVID-19 struck.
This article is not about looking back on COVID-19, but about the possibility of dealing with a future pandemic. Let’s dive into a thought experiment.
The Scenario
We’re in the year 2035. COVID has mutated many times over the past 15 years, bringing new waves and mutations each year. Society has grown accustomed to a back-and-forth of temporary lockdowns and other limited measures.
In Switzerland, my home country, a new Federal Agency for Pandemics was set up in 2030. This agency now continuously analyzes the development of COVID by using artificial intelligence. Under the Pandemic AI Act passed in 2032, the Federal Agency for Pandemics largely automates the triggering and lifting of measures for regions, municipalities, and individuals. The measures range from pandemic alert state 1 (normal state) to pandemic alert state 5 (lockdown).
A majority of the population supports this modus operandi, but society is fragmented. It is unclear whether the Pandemic AI Act triggered the rise of two protest parties on the extreme left and right.
So, how does the artificial intelligence that manages the pandemic work in detail? Giving rise to the technological progress, situation monitoring and decision making for fighting transmissible diseases were largely handed over to AI. As a small country, Switzerland wasn’t a forerunner, but a follower: The EU has imposed stringent restrictions on the movement of people and goods with neighboring states that lack comparable pandemic control measures.
The AI system processes all health data of Swiss residents in real time, collected via Internet-of-Things devices, biosensors, and electronic patient records. Based on all this data, the AI system automatically increases or decreases the pandemic alert state, triggering or lifting protective measures.
What Does This Mean for Entrepreneurs?
Back to reality, back to 2025.
I didn’t invent this thought experiment myself. I took it from a crisis management exercise I teach regularly. The exercise aims to train participants in what we call a multi-crisis: A pandemic, a flood, and a wave of refugees hit the crisis team simultaneously.
To all the entrepreneurs out there, does the term “multi-crisis” sound familiar? In my experience as the Founder & CEO of Yonder, a B2B SaaS company, a crisis is hardly ever isolated from other crises. So it’s probably a good idea to get familiar with handling multiple crises. Exercises prepare you for the necessary situations before adversity hits.
Furthermore, thought experiments are a good practice for entrepreneurs. Most of us are still blindfolded by the good times now past, and we have trouble thinking the unthinkable.
Do you need help getting started to think the unthinkable? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. I have summarized my thoughts on crisis attitude and preparation in an eBook you can download for free.
Happy reading!
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 write about entrepreneurship, leadership, and crisis management.
When I’m not solving problems, I recharge and find inspiration in the breathtaking mountains 🏔 around Zermatt 🇨🇭.
Do you like this perspective? Here’s what you can do next:
📌 Back the signal, not the noise — authentic stories by a person, not AI.
📌 Go deeper with my eBooks — practical guides for tough times.
📌 Browse the full collection — all my writing, in one place. No paywall. Ever.
