I've just got back from the most amazing run. Yes, I did write this at 9pm, meaning I've just been out for an hour or so running in the dark. I am BUZZING.
For those of you that haven't been taken by the night-time running bug, bear with me. This has relevance to business, and entrepreneurship, I promise.
First, let me paint a picture. Imagine the favourite road that you like to drive along, or a riverside walk. A view you are familar with. On a sunny day there is an uninterrupted view across the landscape, a mixture of vibrant colours, hues, smells, noises. Beautiful. Now imagine that scene at night, without the yelow/orange glow of street lights.
Instead, what was colour is now black and white. In fact, more different shades of grey. Its hard to see the horizon, or make out those distant hills. But you can see dark shadows, the glint of moonlight on metal and water, windows, and the paint markings on the road.
This is what you experience if you run along a country road at night, along a ridgeline, taking in the view below, with thousands of stars above, the road partially lit by moonlight, as I have just done. Now fade in the soundtrack of your favourite album, and close your eyes slightly, so some of the lights in the distance turn into vertical bands of light, mini laser shows in front of you, and relax as you trot along, breathing easily. Ahhhh.
Your mind can play tricks with you when you are in this kind of zone. The central road markings appear suspended about a foot off the ground, because you cannot actually make out where the ground is. They just float, like something out of a futuristic sci-fi movie in front of you. Or maybe that's a 'special thing' that I imagine : )
"Great" you say. Nice scene, but what the hell has this to do with business and building teams.
Well, two things.
(1) actually experiencing that feeling of being really alive, in a flow state. Its wonderful. Orgasmic. A rush, a thrill. Unbelievable.
(2) recognising when you are in that state, and when that is a good thing for you business, and when it is not.
Bear with me! Think of it like this - if, when in your business, you are not, in general, happy to be there, working all hours in the early months and (hopefully not too many) years, living off of the adrenaline, and then later, when established, taking pleasure from the thinking time you now have as a result of building a solid business so that you can now focus on the Next Big Thing, then I would take that as a possible sign that you are not really doing something you enjoy enough. It might be time to do something else. Now I know some days are good and some bad; I'm not saying quit after the first bad day, whenever that comes. I'm saying if you never ever get a feeling along the lines of what I have described above..then maybe, just maybe, its worth asking "am I doing the right thing here...is this business really for me?". That's really my point (1) above.
Secondly - point (2) - I'm thinking here about what you might be focusing on, when you feel ' in flow' and really alive. Especially if you are a technical person.
After some reflection, you might come to realise that you love thinking about the next feature you are going to build into version 3.2.5 for Fred McSmith, and then there is that tweak that you promised Marge at A&B Inc to do. You are in flow, you feel most alive when inventing, tweaking, engineering, building the new product or software solution.
That's great, you need that passion in a business. But you also need someone actually building the business!
Someone, or a bunch of people, driving the marketing, making the sales, building the capability, delivering on promises made. All while you are in the proverbial shed out back, inventing new things, happy as larry.
Now I don't want to be seen to be poking fun at technical people, for whom I have a lot of respect. But I do want to make the point that in an entrepreneurial venture, you do need to work out who in your team is absolutely passionate about what, and make sure you have the right people doing the right things.
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