Saturday, December 19, 2015

Randomness, Leverage & Networking

In a recent conversation with a young entrepreneur I was asked about the word(s) I would recommend that he study.  I came up with three in a minute or so.

Randomness: Accepting the brutal reality of knowing your influence on events may be outdone by forces beyond your control.  This knowledge requires stoic resolution to accept that despite your best efforts the goal will not be achieved.  But: progress may just as likely be favored by these same random forces.  Roll with it.

Leverage: To make progress quickly with little or no power you need to create an amplifier.  Look for them - they are a gift of nature the way a natural amphitheater allows a voice to be heard 100 yards away.  Usually you need to trade risk for reward the way mechanics converts velocity for power. Entrepreneurship is the craft of leveraging ideas into movements.

Networking: All success flows from the impact of ideas on people.  People tend to share ideas within their tribes - social networks. The goal of an entrepreneur is to spread an idea among tribes using the natural tendency of the members of that tribe to communicate.  The influence of an entrepreneur is thus leveraged by the interconnections within these networks.